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.

This book unifies a broad range of programming language concepts under the framework of type systems and structural operational semantics.

"Programming languages embody the pragmatics of designing software systems, and also the mathematical concepts which underlie them. Anyone who wants to know how, for example, object-oriented programming rests upon a firm foundation in logic should read this book. It guides one surefootedly through the rich variety of basic programming concepts developed over the past forty years." -- Robin Milner, Professor of Computer Science, The Computer Laboratory, Cambridge University "Programming languages need not be designed in an intellectual vacuum; John Mitchell's book provides an extensive analysis of the fundamental notions underlying programming constructs. A basic grasp of this material is essential for the understanding, comparative analysis, and design of programming languages." -- Luca Cardelli, Digital Equipment Corporation Written for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, "Foundations for Programming Languages" uses a series of typed lambda calculi to study the axiomatic, operational, and denotational semantics of sequential programming languages. Later chapters are devoted to progressively more sophisticated type systems.

Stump’s Programming Language Foundations is a short concise text that covers semantics, equally weighting operational and denotational semantics for several different programming paradigms: imperative, concurrent, and functional. Programming Language Foundations provides: an even coverage of denotational, operational an axiomatic semantics; extensions to concurrent and non-deterministic versions; operational semantics for untyped lambda calculus; functional programming; type systems; and coverage of emerging topics and modern research directions.

A presentation of the formal underpinnings of object-oriented programming languages.

A comprehensive undergraduate textbook covering both theory and practical design issues, with an emphasis on object-oriented languages.

Key ideas in programming language design and implementation explained using a simple and concise framework; a comprehensive introduction suitable for use as a textbook or a reference for researchers. Hundreds of programming languages are in use today—scripting languages for Internet commerce, user interface programming tools, spreadsheet macros, page format specification languages, and many others. Designing a programming language is a metaprogramming activity that bears certain similarities to programming in a regular language, with clarity and simplicity even more important than in ordinary programming. This comprehensive text uses a simple and concise framework to teach key ideas in programming language design and implementation. The book's unique approach is based on a family of syntactically simple pedagogical languages that allow students to explore programming language concepts systematically. It takes as premise and starting point the idea that when language behaviors become incredibly complex, the description of the behaviors must be incredibly simple. The book presents a set of tools (a mathematical metalanguage, abstract syntax, operational and denotational semantics) and uses it to explore a comprehensive set of programming language design dimensions, including dynamic semantics (naming, state, control, data), static semantics (types, type reconstruction, polymporphism, effects), and pragmatics (compilation, garbage collection). The many examples and exercises offer students opportunities to apply the foundational ideas explained in the text. Specialized topics and code that implements many of the algorithms and compilation methods in the book can be found on the book's Web site, along with such additional material as a section on concurrency and proofs of the theorems in the text. The book is suitable as a text for an introductory graduate or advanced undergraduate programming languages course; it can also serve as a reference for researchers and practitioners.