There are two main goals to the student presentations. The speakers gain practice in talking about a technical topic, and the rest of the class gets some perspective and culture in some important CS history.

These talks will be given in teams of two people. Feel free to find your own partner and sign up together, or send me an email and tell me you're looking for a partner.

As you prepare your presentation, you should make sure to cover the following information:

• Why was this language developed in the first place?
• What tradeoffs in language design did the developers face?
• How does the syntax of the language reflect the answers to the above questions? Use code examples to demonstrate. The TPK algorithm by Knuth and Pardo, for example, demonstrates well how an imperative algorithm might be coded. It would thus could be a good example to demonstrate FORTRAN, since FORTRAN was designed for mathematical coding. SIMULA, on the other hand, is often credited as the first object-oriented language. The TPK algorithm doesn't demonstrate object-oriented programming.

Many languages have home pages and websites by enthusiasts, which are fine places to begin learning. There are undoubtedly other useful resources on the web and in the library as well.

Wikipedia is a good reference in general, though it can be "hit and miss" in particular. Its accuracy is usually pretty good for computer science topics. One of the main challenges you will face is that anyone in the class can read the Wikipedia entries before your talk, so you still need to ensure that your talk is worthwhile.

You should also prepare a handout for the class that is a reference card, or "cheat sheet," for the language itself. It should be no more than two sides of a sheet of paper, and should include the basic language syntax and some examples. Make sure to include your references on here as well.

I will be grading the reference cards and the presentations on content as well as presentation. Keep in mind that the talk is only 10 minutes, so you should choose an appropriate amount of material for such a short timeframe. I am happy to talk with you in advance to help balance appropriate content for your talk, if you wish.

The first two presentations are crucial, as we will discuss their pros and cons in class. I promise to be tasteful in my comments! I will grade the first two presentations more leniently.

It is entirely up to you what media you choose to use to help display your concepts: you can use the blackboard, refer to your handouts, or project electronic aids. Variety for these talks is nice; don't feel compelled to use the same presentation style as others.

Rebooting the classroom computer to different operating systems to handle the talk is cumbersome. If you choose to use the classroom computer for any part of your presentation, you must use OS X. It is your responsiblity to test your presentation in the classroom during off-hours to make sure that it actually works. If you choose to use your own laptop computer or other device, it is your responsibility to verify in advance that you have appropriate cables and adapters to connect to the classroom projection system. You should also practice in advance how to make your laptop talk to the projector.

Here are the grading guidelines that I will use when grading the presentations.