Course detail

Functional and Lifetime Programming

FIT-FLPAcad. year: 2025/2026

Practical applications and broader introduction into lambda calculus within the context of functional programming languages. Data ownership and lifetime within the context of programming language rust. Within functional programming, abstract data types are discussed, as well as the use of recursion and induction, manipulation of lists and infinite data structures in language Haskell. Within the context of programming language rust, there are presented issues of programming in language with fully deterministic and automatic memory management.

Why is the course taught

Purely declarative programming languages are such a phenomenon, which enables to get a new viewpoint on many problems and, thus, one can obtain new, original solutions. The programming language rust offers high efficiency and multithreaded programming even if it is fully compiled.

Exam prerequisites

At the end of a term, a student should have at least 20 points out of 40 possible, plus

  • at least 4 points from project on functional programming (12 possible),
  • and at least 3 points from project on programming language rust (8 possible).

Plagiarism and not allowed cooperation will cause that involved students are not classified and disciplinary action can be initiated.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

5

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

doc. Dr. Ing. Dušan Kolář

Department

Department of Information Systems (UIFS)

Entry knowledge

Methods of processing (analysis, evaluation/interpretation/translation) of programming languages, basic concepts and experience with programming languages and their use.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

  • Mid-term exam, for which there is only one schedule and, thus, there is no possibility to have another trial.
  • Two projects should be solved and delivered in a given date during a term.

 

  • Mid-term exam - written form, questions and exercises to be answered and solved, no possibility to have a second/alternative trial - 20 points.
  • Projects realization - 2 projects, implementation of a simple program according to the given specification - one in a functional programming language the other in the programming language rust - 20 points all projects together.
  • Final exam - written form, questions and exercises to be answered and solved, 2 another corrections trials possible (60 points - the minimal number of points which can be obtained from the final exam is 25, otherwise, no points will be assigned to a student).

Aims

Obtaining a basic knowledge and practical experience in functional programming and programming in language rust. Introduction into formal concepts used as a theoretical basis for both paradigms.

Students will get basic knowledge and practical experience in functional programming (the important representative of declarative programming). Moreover, they will get basic information about theoretical basis of the functional paradigm and implementation techniques.

Use and understanding of recursion for expression of algorithms.

Working with data lifetime and owner principles to achieve maximum performance in a compiled programming language with fully automatic and deterministic memory management.

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Klabnik, S., Nichols, C., Krycho, C., et al: The Rust Programming Language, Online, 2025, dostupné z: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ . [citováno 2025-12-04] (EN)
Lipovača, M.: Learn You a Haskell for Great Good!, No Starch Press, 2011, ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-283-8 (EN)

Recommended reading

Bieliková, M., Návrat, P.: Funkcionálne a logické programovanie, Vydavateĺstvo STU, Vazovova 5, Bratislava, 2000.
Jones, S.P.: Haskell 98 Language and Libraries, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 272, ISBN 0521826144
Klabnik, S., Nichols, C., Krycho, C., et al: The Rust Programming Language, Online, 2025, dostupné z: https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ . [citováno 2025-12-04]
Podklady k přednáškám (slajdy, ukázky, ...)
Thompson, S.: Haskell, The Craft of Functional Programming, ADDISON-WESLEY, 1999, ISBN 0-201-34275-8

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme MITAI Master's

    specialization NSEC , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NNET , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NMAL , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NCPS , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NHPC , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NVER , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NIDE , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NISY , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NEMB , 0 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NSPE , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NEMB , 0 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NBIO , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NSEN , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NVIZ , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NGRI , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NADE , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NISD , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core
    specialization NMAT , 1 year of study, summer semester, compulsory, fundamental theoretical courses of the profile core

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hod., optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

doc. Dr. Ing. Dušan Kolář

Syllabus

  1. Introduction to functional programming
  2. Lambda calculus
  3. Programming language Haskell, introduction, lists
  4. User-defined data types, type classes, and arrays in Haskell
  5. Input/Output in Haskell - type classes IO and Monad
  6. Proofs in functional programming
  7. Denotational semantics, implementation of functional languages
  8. Rust, introduction, shadowing, compound types
  9. Control flow, ownership
  10. Slices, data structures
  11. Packages, built-in collections
  12. Errors, generic types
  13. Lifetime, discussion, conclusion

Exercise in computer lab

12 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Ing. Radek Hranický, Ph.D.
Ing. Daniel Poliakov

Syllabus

  1. Haskell - basic language features, recursion, lists, partial application, higher-order functions (map, filter, foldX), infinite lists, partial evaluation
  2. Haskell - data types, monads, I/O
  3. Haskell - demonstration - construction of a simple interpreter using library Parsec
  4. Rust - cargo, shadowing, compound types, control flow, slices
  5. Rust - data structures, packages, built-in collections
  6. Rust - generic types, lifetime

Project

14 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

Ing. Radek Hranický, Ph.D.
Ing. Daniel Poliakov

Syllabus

  1. A simple program in Haskell programming language (Hugs, GHC, GHCi).
  2. A simple program in Rust (cargo).