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Types and Programming Languages
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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
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Hardcover, 623 pages
Published
January 4th 2002
by MIT Press
(first published 2002)
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One of my most unpleasant experience in grad school is when I has absolutely no idea what his peers are talking about. I frequently found myself in that situation during my years at CMU. Type theory is one of the topics. Why didn’t I just ask them? I did. My friend Oliver once gave me the perfect response: “I cannot afford to spend time on educating you.” In a world full of distractions and useless information, time is very valuable resource. If one wants to learn, he has to spend his own time
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After spending years on my shelf and having been partially read at least once before, this book was finally finished! (I don't know why I used the passive form there, it just felt right for some reason)
I'm glad I did finally read it, even though there were parts that were glanced through without too much attention to detail and even though I skipped the exercises that are probably needed to get a more thorough understanding of the material. I read it mostly as a way to get a good overview of the ...more
I'm glad I did finally read it, even though there were parts that were glanced through without too much attention to detail and even though I skipped the exercises that are probably needed to get a more thorough understanding of the material. I read it mostly as a way to get a good overview of the ...more

I liked the structure: starting simple, explaining things clearly, and building slowly.
Don't attempt to read this book without at least a basic knowledge of doing proofs in math and higher-order logic. This should cover you: Language, Proof and Logic: Text and CD
As you work on implementing your own type systems, you'll find the detailed metatheory chapters worth revisiting.
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Don't attempt to read this book without at least a basic knowledge of doing proofs in math and higher-order logic. This should cover you: Language, Proof and Logic: Text and CD
As you work on implementing your own type systems, you'll find the detailed metatheory chapters worth revisiting.
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May 17, 2007
Sam
marked it as to-read
Recommends it for:
Any programmer interested in writing their own programming language(s)
Perhaps the best book of its kind for the beginning/intermediate programmer interested in PLT (programming language theory). The book covers the simple untyped lambda calculus and builds on that foundation to many typed lambda calculi. Implementation chapters show the reader how to put the information to good use, providing executable code in the O'Caml language.
As a non-mathematician, programming hobbyist without formal experience or training, I've found this book particularly helpful in follow ...more
As a non-mathematician, programming hobbyist without formal experience or training, I've found this book particularly helpful in follow ...more

It's awesome. Personally sub-typing and implementing Java wasn't interesting to me but everything else was.
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Very good introduction into theory of types. Useful if your dealing with modern software development tools, like Kotlin, Facebook's Flow, Haskell, Typescript.
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Great introduction to type systems and runtime semantics of PLs. Doesn't cover dependent type systems, type inference beyond Hindley-Milner, or practical problems of compilation to assembly languages.
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An invaluable reference for programming language theory. Especially useful for those interested in functional languages, which seem to be poorly covered elsewhere. This book works in the opposite direction as most, assuming a functional approach and eventually deriving imperative constructs, rather than the other way around. I like this much better, but it may be tough if you lack the functional background.
One thing I've noticed is that people seem to get hung up over the notation and liberal u ...more
One thing I've noticed is that people seem to get hung up over the notation and liberal u ...more

Excellent. A small note: if (like me) you get bogged down in the proofs, Pierce's Software Foundations may be a better introduction to ideas such as type preservation, progress properties, and induction over terms and type derivations. I wish I'd read that work first.
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Dec 11, 2008
Sonny Ny
marked it as to-read
Brian Goetz's favorite CS book - http://www.briangoetz.com/blog/?p=58
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A canonical tome. If you're writing a type system, read this.
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“A type system can be regarded as calculating a kind of static approximation to the run-time behaviours of the terms in a program.”
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