It's an Eggert class. It's difficult, the projects are long and complex, and the tests are hard. It's possibly the hardest upper division CS course you will take. However, it is an interesting class if you want to learn about the theory behind programming languages. If you've never encountered functional or logical programming before, those offer an interesting way of approaching problems. You do get an overview of several different languages (OCaml, Java, Prolog, Python, Lisp), but it's not long enough to learn any of them in depth. Thankfully, the TAs provide lots of help in discussion sections, so I recommend attending those.

Basically, you're gonna have to take this class at some point, so at least make it the focus of your quarter. Don't take other difficult classes with it, and don't procrastinate on the projects.

This class wasn't as bad as I thought. Like all Eggert classes it was really valuable to go to lecture and discussion. The projects were hard (HARD) but the midterm and final were honestly not too bad (big focus on OCaml and parsing). I feel like this class made me a better developer and I learned a lot, it was just structured too chaotically.

You have to start projects early in this class. They will take a lot longer than you think. As with any Eggert class, the midterm and final are super hard and no amount of notes you bring will probably help. I got egged real hard. :(

The class is fine, you know what to expect from Eggert, exams and homeworks are difficult, but the curve is generous.

- lectures are really good
- exams follow the lecture content and practice exams pretty well.
- assignments are as awful as everyone else says they are

This class is way too rigorous for an undergraduate class, and the exam averages very much speak to that point.

we hate eggert

Textbook is good for OCaml

eggert is a bad professor. people get good grades off studying themselves

HW ranking IMO (Hw2 > Hw5 > Hw3 > Hw4 > Hw1), Hw5 is easier if you don't care about getting a full score as it is more incremental than the rest. Midterm is a tossup as all eggert classes are.
This quarter they added an autograder through gradescope so HW averages were higher