[PL-sem-jr] Scheduling; presentation notes

[Richard Cobbe]

Good morning, all.

I wanted to clarify (or at least open discussion on) a couple of
meta-issues that came up yesterday during Felix's presentation on type
systems.

First, I had always interpreted our schedule as a rough guideline,
rather than as set in stone.  If, as happened yesterday, we have more
material than can easily be covered in a single slot, then we may want
to think about having the speaker continue the following week, pushing
everything in the schedule back.  (This is especially useful because the
second-years have a schedule constraint that prevents us from simply
staying down there for 3 hours at a stretch.)

Of course, this isn't always possible -- Felix said yesterday that he'd
be more comfortable continuing his presentation in several weeks, after
he's had more time to prepare, and that's fine.

Second, I'd like to ask that we share any discussion with the entire
group, rather than just keeping it between a couple of people as
happened a couple of times yesterday.  Clearly, we want to stay on
topic, but I often find those side discussions extremely informative,
and I'd like to have the opportunity to learn from them!

                               * * * * *
 
Finally, a reminder that we'll be covering chapter 1 of the Principles
of Program Analysis next week; please try to read this before Monday.
There are 4 copies in the lab that I know of (Stevie, Carl, Sam, and
Mitch).  If you want to photocopy the chapter, I find that 93% reduction
allows you to fit two pages onto one sheet with no real readability
problems (at least on the copier in 202).

(Sam, you might be giving some thought as to how you want to structure
the session on Monday.  Do you want to present the material, or just
open it up for discussion?)

And, of course, thanks to Felix for his presentation yesterday!

Richard