Topics • what this book is about, • its intended audience, • what the reader ought to know, • how the book is organized, • acknowledgements. Specifications express information about a program that is not normally part of the program, and often cannot be expressed in a programming lan guage. In the past, the word "specification" has sometimes been used to refer to somewhat vague documentation written in English. But today it indicates a precise statement, written in a machine processable language, about the purpose and behavior of a program. Specifications are written in languages that are just as precise as programming languages, but have additional capabilities that increase their power of expression. The termi nology formal specification is sometimes used to emphasize the modern meaning. For us, all specifications are formal. The use of specifications as an integral part of a program opens up a whole new area of programming - progmmming with specifications. This book describes how to use specifications in the process of building programs, debugging them, and interfacing them with other programs. It deals with a new trend in programming - the evolution of specification languages from the current generation of programming languages. And it describes new strategies and styles of programming that utilize specifications. The trend is just beginning, and the reader, having finished this book, will viii Preface certainly see that there is much yet to be done and to be discovered about programming with specifications.

A feature of modern advanced computing is the functional approach to programming. In this book, the authors present an introduction to the mathematics which underline functional programming, emphasizing the understanding of definition and specification--a prerequisite of good programming and problem solving with a computer. The book is self-contained, requiring a low level of mathematical sophistication and may be used as an introduction to the mathematics of programming.Provides an introduction to the functional approach to programming**Emphasizes the problem to be solved, not the programming language**Takes the view that all computer programs are a definition of a function**Includes exercises for each chapter**Can be used as a pre-programming language introduction to the mathematics of computing.

Providing a thorough treatment of most elementary program development techniques, this revised edition covers topics such as procedures, parameters, recursion and data refinement, with the integration of specification, development and coding, based on ordinary (classical) logic.

This book gives an introduction to the specification of programs, and some techniques that may be used to prove correctness of programs. Before mentioning any programming language an abstract execution model with an operational semantics is introduced, which is used for proving correctness. This execution model starts with recursive functions on which several features are added. When the execution model is introduced the transformation of recursive functions to tail recursive functions is treated, whenever such is possible. Iterative algorithms and the transformation between iterative algorithms and tail recursive functions is the next topic of the book. At that moment enough ingredients are there to introduce partial and total correctness of algorithms. Finally the implementation of algorithms in the programming languages ML and Pascal is treated.

This book is an introduction to programming concepts that uses Python 3 as the target language. It follows a practical just-in-time presentation – material is given to the student when it is needed. Many examples will be based on games, because Python has become the language of choice for basic game development. Designed as a Year One textbook for introduction to programming classes or for the hobbyist who wants to learn the fundamentals of programming, the text assumes no programming experience. Features: * Introduces programming concepts that use Python 3 * Includes many examples based on video game development * 4-color throughout with game demos on the companion files

In programming courses, using the different syntax of multiple languages, such as C++, Java, PHP, and Python, for the same abstraction often confuses students new to computer science. Introduction to Programming Languages separates programming language concepts from the restraints of multiple language syntax by discussing the concepts at an abstract level. Designed for a one-semester undergraduate course, this classroom-tested book teaches the principles of programming language design and implementation. It presents: Common features of programming languages at an abstract level rather than a comparative level The implementation model and behavior of programming paradigms at abstract levels so that students understand the power and limitations of programming paradigms Language constructs at a paradigm level A holistic view of programming language design and behavior To make the book self-contained, the author introduces the necessary concepts of data structures and discrete structures from the perspective of programming language theory. The text covers classical topics, such as syntax and semantics, imperative programming, program structures, information exchange between subprograms, object-oriented programming, logic programming, and functional programming. It also explores newer topics, including dependency analysis, communicating sequential processes, concurrent programming constructs, web and multimedia programming, event-based programming, agent-based programming, synchronous languages, high-productivity programming on massive parallel computers, models for mobile computing, and much more. Along with problems and further reading in each chapter, the book includes in-depth examples and case studies using various languages that help students understand syntax in practical contexts.

Based on Hanson and Rischel's introductory programming course in the Informatics Programme at the Technical University of Denmark, Using Standard ML (Meta Language) throughout, they bypass theory and customized or efficient implementations to focus on understanding the process of programming and program design. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR