Introduction to the Theory of Programming Languages

Gilles Dowek is a Professor at École Polytechnique. He is also a Researcher at the Laboratoire d'Informatique de l'École Polytechnique and the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA). His research concerns the formalization of mathematics and the mechanization of reasoning. His main contribution is a reformulation of the axiomatic method which provides a central role to the notion of computation. Jean-Jacques Lévy is a senior scientist at the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique and a Professor at École Polytechnique. He has successively worked on operational and denotational semantics of programming languages, on reduction strategies in lambda-calculus and in rewrite systems, on the computer aided design of circuits and on the semantics of concurrency with applications to distribution and mobility.

From the reviews: "The book is divided into eight chapters and an epilogue. ... Faculty teaching an undergraduate programming languages course may find this book to be a useful reference. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals/practitioners." (J. Beidler, Choice, Vol. 48 (10), June, 2011) "It is a short book--of about 100 pages--consisting of eight chapters and an epilogue. The book focuses on the formal description of programming language semantics and compilation using denotational semantics, small-step operational semantics (reduction semantics), and big-step operational semantics (natural semantics). ... The book provides a good description of programming language concepts and motivates the necessary theory well. ... The book is suitable for both professionals and graduate- and advanced undergraduate-level classes." (Michael Oudshoorn, ACM Computing Reviews, November, 2011)

• 1. Terms and Relations.- 2. The Language PCF.- 3. From Evaluation to Interpretation.- 4. Compilation.- 5. PCF with Types.- 6. Type Inference.- 7. References and Assignment.- 8. Records and Objects.- 9. Epilogue.- 10. Index.- 11. Bibliography.