The Structure of Typed Programming Languages describes the fundamental syntactic and semantic features of modern programming languages, carefully spelling out their impacts on language design. Using classical and recent research from lambda calculus and type theory, it presents a rational reconstruction of the Algol-like imperative languages such as Pascal, Ada, and Modula-3, and the higher-order functional languages such as Scheme and ML.David Schmidt's text is based on the premise that although few programmers ever actually design a programming language, it is important for them to understand the structuring techniques. His use of these techniques in a reconstruction of existing programming languages and in the design of new ones allows programmers and would-be programmers to see why existing languages are structured the way they are and how new languages can be built using variations on standard themes.The text is unique in its tutorial presentation of higher-order lambda calculus and intuitionistic type theory. The latter in particular reveals that a programming language is a logic in which its typing system defines the propositions of the logic and its well-typed programs constitute the proofs of the propositions.The Structure of Typed Programming Languages is designed for use in a first or second course on principles of programming languages. It assumes a basic knowledge of programming languages and mathematics equivalent to a course based on books such as Friedman, Wand, and Haynes': Essentials of Programming Languages. As Schmidt covers both the syntax and the semantics of programming languages, his text provides a perfect precursor to a more formal presentation of programming language semantics such as Gunter's Semantics of Programming Languages.

The text is unique in its tutorial presentation of higher-order lambda calculus and intuitionistic type theory.

A comprehensive introduction to type systems and programming languages. A type system is a syntactic method for automatically checking the absence of certain erroneous behaviors by classifying program phrases according to the kinds of values they compute. The study of type systems—and of programming languages from a type-theoretic perspective—has important applications in software engineering, language design, high-performance compilers, and security. This text provides a comprehensive introduction both to type systems in computer science and to the basic theory of programming languages. The approach is pragmatic and operational; each new concept is motivated by programming examples and the more theoretical sections are driven by the needs of implementations. Each chapter is accompanied by numerous exercises and solutions, as well as a running implementation, available via the Web. Dependencies between chapters are explicitly identified, allowing readers to choose a variety of paths through the material. The core topics include the untyped lambda-calculus, simple type systems, type reconstruction, universal and existential polymorphism, subtyping, bounded quantification, recursive types, kinds, and type operators. Extended case studies develop a variety of approaches to modeling the features of object-oriented languages.

Introduction: background and technical foundations; User aspects; Elements of procedural programming languages.

Semantics of Programming Languages exposes the basic motivations and philosophy underlying the applications of semantic techniques in computer science. It introduces the mathematical theory of programming languages with an emphasis on higher-order functions and type systems. Designed as a text for upper-level and graduate-level students, the mathematically sophisticated approach will also prove useful to professionals who want an easily referenced description of fundamental results and calculi. Basic connections between computational behavior, denotational semantics, and the equational logic of functional programs are thoroughly and rigorously developed. Topics covered include models of types, operational semantics, category theory, domain theory, fixed point (denotational). semantics, full abstraction and other semantic correspondence criteria, types and evaluation, type checking and inference, parametric polymorphism, and subtyping. All topics are treated clearly and in depth, with complete proofs for the major results and numerous exercises.

The earth, viewed through the window of an airplane, shows a regularity and reptition of features, for example, hills, valleys, rivers, lakes, and forests. Nevertheless, there is great local variation; Vermont does not look like Utah. Similarly, if we rise above the details of a few programming languages, we can discern features that are common to many languages. This is the programming language landscape; the main features include variables, types, control structures, and input/output. Again, there is local variation; Pascal does not look like Basic. This work is a broad and comprehensive discussion of the principal features of the major programming languages. A Study of Concepts The text surveys the landscape of programming languages and its features. Each chapter concentrates on a single language concept. A simple model of the feature, expressed as a mini-language, is presented. This allows us to study an issue in depth and relative isolation. Each chapter concludes with a discussion of the way in which the concept is incorporated into some well-known languages. This permits a reasonably complete coverage of language issues.

Programming Language Structures deals with the structures of programming languages and introduces the reader to five important programming languages: Algol, Fortran, Lisp, Snobol, and Pascal. The fundamental similarities and differences among these languages are discussed. A unifying framework is constructed that can be used to study the structure of other languages, such as Cobol, PL/I, and APL. Several of the tools and methodologies needed to construct large programs are also considered. Comprised of 10 chapters, this book begins with a summary of the relevant concepts and principles about algorithms, flowcharts, and computation that a student is expected to know from the first course. The discussion then turns to the semantics of procedure and function call as well as argument-parameter matching with various kinds of parameters; recursion and its relation to tree traversal; syntax formalism for context-free languages; and ALGOL 60 and block structuring. Case study programs are presented to reinforce the reader's understanding of ALGOL 60 and Fortran semantics. The remaining chapters deal with Lisp, Snobol, and Pascal. This monograph is intended for working programmers and students in computer science who have an interest in the subject of programming.