Stephen N. Freund, Kim Bruce, Kathi Fisler, Dan Grossman, Matthew Hertz, Doug Lea, Gary T. Leavens, Andrew Meyers, Larry Snyder. Why Undergraduates Should Learn the Principles of Programming Languages . SIGPLAN Education Board, June 2010.
Undergraduate students obtain important knowledge and skills by studying the pragmatics of programming in multiple languages and the principles underlying programming language design and implementation. These topics strengthen students’ grasp of the power of computation, help students choose the most appropriate programming model and language for a given problem, and improve their design skills. Understanding programming languages thus helps students in ways vital to many career paths and interests.