Practical Foundations for Programming Languages (original) (raw)

Practical Foundations for Programming Languages (Second Edition) by Robert Harper.

Cambridge University Press, 2016.

From the Preface to the Second Edition:

My purpose in writing this book is to establish a comprehensive framework for formulating and analyzing a broad range of ideas in programming languages. If language design and programming methodology are to advance from a trade-craft to a rigorous discipline, it is essential that we first get the definitions right. Then, and only then, can there be meaningful analysis and consolidation of ideas. My hope is that I have helped to build such a foundation.

• Abbreviated online edition, with corrections.

Answers and Exercises

• Sample solutions to the printed exercises.
• More exercises, with answers.

Supplementary Materials

• The Structure of an Interpreter.
• Church's λ-Calculus.
• Weakening for Statics.
• Natural and Co-Natural Numbers.
• Equality of T and F.
• PCF By Value.
• PCF By Name.
• Stacks By-Name and By-Value.
• Interpreting By-Name as By-Value.
• Programming with Continuations.
• CPS Transformation.
• Types and Parallelism.
• Relating Transition and Cost Dynamics for Parallel PCF.
• Exceptions: Control and Data.
• Derived Forms for Modernized Algol.
• Automata and Concurrency.
• Concurrent Algol, Modernized.
• Weakening in Statics.

Errors and Commentary

• List of known mistakes, and their corrections.
• Commentary on choices, variations, and extensions.

Course Materials

• Principles of Programming Languages. Carnegie Mellon University undergraduate course in programming languages.
• Existential Type Blog. Writings on programming languages, research, and education.
• Notation Guide provided by Toronto CS Reading Group.

Last modified: Mon Nov 1 22:02:30 EDT 2021