Concepts in Programming Languages (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Krzysztof Apt (Author) "Programming languages are the medium of expression in the art of computer programming..." (more)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book's three goals are achieved admirably: to discuss the design decisions and tradeoffs of various programming languages, to compare programming languages to deepen understanding, and to present language-specific programming techniques... This is the text one would use in a course on programming languages. Highly recommended." Choice

"It is an excellent book on programming languages, and one that lecturers would enjoy using and students would gain much from having and reading...The exercises are excellent, and range from basic exercises to ones that, if they don't inspire new careers, ought at least generate fine projects. ..I am sure this book will be a success and we will soon see further editions...Indeed it is an inspiring book." LTSN Book Reviews

Product Description

Concepts in Programming Languages elucidates the central concepts used in modern programming languages, such as functions, types, memory management, and control. The book is unique in its comprehensive presentation and comparison of major object-oriented programming languages. Separate chapters examine the history of objects, Simula and Smalltalk, and the prominent languages C++ and Java. The author presents foundational topics, such as lambda calculus and denotational semantics, in an easy-to-read, informal style, focusing on the main insights provided by these theories. Advanced topics include concurrency, concurrent object-oriented programming, program components, and inter-language interoperability. A chapter on logic programming illustrates the importance of specialized programming methods for certain kinds of problems.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 450 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1st edition (December 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521780985
• ISBN-13: 978-0521780988
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #673,125 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good introduction to the subject, June 18, 2007

By	Jeffrey Rubard (Beaverton, OR US) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I can't speak to John Mitchell's skill as a lecturer, but some of the complaints here seem to betray a misunderstanding of the purpose of the book: to serve as an introduction to programming language theory, such as can be found in Mitchell's other book *Foundations for Programming Languages*. Mitchell is taking you *out of* the marketable skills zone and into abstract computer science, and he's being pretty nice about it -- the book contains friendly precises of topics like lambda calculus and denotational semantics, which make up the formal core of programming languages. What you will learn has applications in all popular programming languages, even if it's not spelled out in the text.

ML was a good choice as an example language, because it includes many of the features a programming language might have (being both imperative and functional), and furthermore is a serious research language on account of its well-understood semantics and type system. Focusing on it to explain core concepts was not a mistake. Mitchell knows how to do it the other way, too: explanations of the basic elements of object-orientation are parceled out over several notable OO languages, providing a way to compare and contrast how the major OO concepts can be implemented. (I didn't find the final chapter, Apt's summary of Prolog, as helpful: the declarative paradigm is too far removed from what was developed in the rest of the book.)

On account of its relatively gentle explanations and the importance of its concepts for all aspects of CS, this would be a good book for a relative beginner in CS to pick up (provided they can comprehend more than just code). But if you find it too repellent, you're probably not going to be much happier with more advanced treatments: its character just reflects the nature of the field.

20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Missing the point, August 9, 2004

By	James Walden (US) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While I cannot speak to the quality of Mitchell's course, having only read his book, the earlier criticisms of his use of ML in the book are missing the point of a programming languages class. It's not meant to teach you a random sampling of the 2500+ computer languages that are out there. The idea is to learn about the fundamental paradigms of programming, with a focus on the functional and logical approaches since students are generally already familiar with imperative and object-oriented programming.

ML is one of several good choices for illustrating functional programming, and is actually one of the more popular functional languages (especially the OCaML dialect.) There are many well written books and tutorials on the ML family of languages freely available on the web if you need more examples or detail than he provides in this text. However, the point isn't to learn ML, but rather that once you understand functional programming in any language, you can take advantage of its power, not only in languages like perl and python which offer some limited but nice functional features like map and anonymous functions, but also in imperative languages like C via function pointers and callback techniques.

14 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great book, the best presentation of the topic, January 9, 2004

By A Customer

The book is wonderfully and clearly written; it is an easy read without taking a college course, which is what I did. Any person seriously interested in computer science should get acquainted with this material to develop true understanding and appreciation for programming languages in general and specific ones in popular use right now. Introduction of other languages, like Lisp, ML, and Smalltalk is very appropriate and sets a good background for the foundation and comparison of popular aspects of C++ and Java.