Design Concepts in Programming Languages, Turback, Gifford and Sheldon

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 its 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, polymorphism, effects), and pragmatics (compilation, garbage collection). "This new textbook by Franklyn Turbak, David Gifford, and Mark Sheldon — comprehensive, thorough, pedagogically innovative, impeccably written and organized — greatly enriches the area of programming languages and will be an important reference for years to come.

Table of Contents
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
I Foundations
1 Introduction
2 Syntax
3 Operational Semantics
4 Denotational Semantics
5 Fixed Points
II Dynamic Semantics
6 FL: A Functional Language
7 Naming
8 State
9 Control
10 Data
III Static Semantics
11 Simple Types
12 Polymorphism and Higher-order Types
13 Type Reconstruction
14 Abstract Types
15 Modules
16 Effects Describe Program Behavior
IV Pragmatics
17 Compilation
18 Garbage Collection
A A Metalanguage
B Our Pedagogical Languages
References
Index