CS 541			HOMEWORK 2		Due: Feb. 3, 1992

1. Either by yourself or with a group from your research or interest area,
design a programming language or language-like system to help with the
solution of some problems in parallel processing.  

a. Clearly state the problems that your design is addressing,
and goals for your solution (how your solution should be evaluated).

b. You must give a context-free grammar for the syntax of your language,
or whatever part of the language you are designing.
(It does not have to be formally checked.)

c. You must clearly state the semantics (meaning) of each piece of syntax.
Describe any interactions with existing parts of the language (if any).
This should be done in English; do not use formal techniques (such as programs)
except as an adjunct to your English description.  You may use technical
terms from the programming language area in your description.  It will help
if you make liberal use of examples, but examples alone will not be sufficient;
you must describe the semantics abstractly, being sure to cover all cases.

d. Give at least two full programs (or sessions)
that illustrate the features of your language (or system).

e. Be prepared to discuss your design in class, before the due date.
That is, you should start working on this now so you have something to say.

2. Keep, and turn in, a log of the problems you encounter in working problem 1.

General comments:

Your design should be kept small, say no more than 20 pages,
unless you work in a group.  It would be best to work alone,
and please do *not* work in groups larger than 4 people.

For examples of descriptions, see in the course reference the Prolog manual
or the little Smalltalk description.  You might also dig out some language
reference manuals described in the literature introduction; in particular,
the Algol 60 manual is a wonderful example of a language reference.
The little Smalltalk document comes closer to what you might do if you are
working with a set of subroutines or an abstract data type.
Don't be as ambitious or as detailed as any of these descriptions, however.