Java, undoubtedly, has its roots in embedded systems and the Web. Nevertheless, it is a fully functional high-level programming language that can provide users with a wide range of functionality and versatility. This thoroughly cross-reviewed state-of-the-art survey is devoted to the study of the syntax and semantics of Java from a formal-methods point of view. It consists of the following chapters by leading researchers: Formal Grammar for Java; Describing the Semantics of Java and Proving Type Soundness; Proving Java Type Soundness; Machine-Checking the Java Specification: Proving Type-Safety; An Event-Based Structural Operational Semantics of Multi-Threaded Java Dynamic Denotational Semantics of Java; A Programmer's Reduction Semantics for Classes and Mixins; A Formal Specification of Java Virtual Machine Instructions for Objects, Methods and Subroutines; The Operational Semantics of a Java Secure Processor; A Programmer Friendly Modular Definition of the Semantics of Java.

With this book, readers with a basic grounding in discreet mathematics will be able to understand the practical applications of these difficult concepts. The book presents the typically difficult subject of "formal methods" in an informal, easy-to-follow manner. A "laboratory component" is integrated throughout the text.

The Formal Semantics of Programming Languages provides the basic mathematical techniques necessary for those who are beginning a study of the semantics and logics of programming languages. These techniques will allow students to invent, formalize, and justify rules with which to reason about a variety of programming languages. Although the treatment is elementary, several of the topics covered are drawn from recent research, including the vital area of concurency. The book contains many exercises ranging from simple to miniprojects.Starting with basic set theory, structural operational semantics is introduced as a way to define the meaning of programming languages along with associated proof techniques. Denotational and axiomatic semantics are illustrated on a simple language of while-programs, and fall proofs are given of the equivalence of the operational and denotational semantics and soundness and relative completeness of the axiomatic semantics. A proof of Godel's incompleteness theorem, which emphasizes the impossibility of achieving a fully complete axiomatic semantics, is included. It is supported by an appendix providing an introduction to the theory of computability based on while-programs. Following a presentation of domain theory, the semantics and methods of proof for several functional languages are treated. The simplest language is that of recursion equations with both call-by-value and call-by-name evaluation. This work is extended to lan guages with higher and recursive types, including a treatment of the eager and lazy lambda-calculi. Throughout, the relationship between denotational and operational semantics is stressed, and the proofs of the correspondence between the operation and denotational semantics are provided. The treatment of recursive types - one of the more advanced parts of the book - relies on the use of information systems to represent domains. The book concludes with a chapter on parallel programming languages, accompanied by a discussion of methods for specifying and verifying nondeterministic and parallel programs.

Despite using them every day, most software engineers know little about how programming languages are designed and implemented. For many, their only experience with that corner of computer science was a terrifying "compilers" class that they suffered through in undergrad and tried to blot from their memory as soon as they had scribbled their last NFA to DFA conversion on the final exam. That fearsome reputation belies a field that is rich with useful techniques and not so difficult as some of its practitioners might have you believe. A better understanding of how programming languages are built will make you a stronger software engineer and teach you concepts and data structures you'll use the rest of your coding days. You might even have fun. This book teaches you everything you need to know to implement a full-featured, efficient scripting language. You'll learn both high-level concepts around parsing and semantics and gritty details like bytecode representation and garbage collection. Your brain will light up with new ideas, and your hands will get dirty and calloused. Starting from main(), you will build a language that features rich syntax, dynamic typing, garbage collection, lexical scope, first-class functions, closures, classes, and inheritance. All packed into a few thousand lines of clean, fast code that you thoroughly understand because you wrote each one yourself.

This clearly written textbook introduces the reader to the three styles of programming, examining object-oriented/imperative, functional, and logic programming. The focus of the text moves from highly prescriptive languages to very descriptive languages, demonstrating the many and varied ways in which we can think about programming. Designed for interactive learning both inside and outside of the classroom, each programming paradigm is highlighted through the implementation of a non-trivial programming language, demonstrating when each language may be appropriate for a given problem. Features: includes review questions and solved practice exercises, with supplementary code and support files available from an associated website; provides the foundations for understanding how the syntax of a language is formally defined by a grammar; examines assembly language programming using CoCo; introduces C++, Standard ML, and Prolog; describes the development of a type inference system for the language Small.

ETAPS’99 is the second instance of the European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software. ETAPS is an annual federated conference that was established in 1998 by combining a number of existing and new conferences. This year it comprises ve conferences (FOSSACS, FASE, ESOP, CC, TACAS), four satellite workshops (CMCS, AS, WAGA, CoFI), seven invited lectures, two invited tutorials, and six contributed tutorials. The events that comprise ETAPS address various aspects of the system - velopment process, including speci cation, design, implementation, analysis and improvement. The languages, methodologies and tools which support these - tivities are all well within its scope. Dieren t blends of theory and practice are represented, with an inclination towards theory with a practical motivation on one hand and soundly-based practice on the other. Many of the issues involved in software design apply to systems in general, including hardware systems, and the emphasis on software is not intended to be exclusive.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming, ECOOP 2002, held in Malaga, Spain, in June 2002. The 24 revised full papers presented together with one full invited paper were carefully reviewed and selected from 96 submissions. The book offers topical sections on aspect-oriented software development, Java virtual machines, distributed systems, patterns and architectures, languages, optimization, theory and formal techniques, and miscellaneous.