Modern Programming Languages: A Practical Introduction

by Adam Webber

Intended for computer science majors, this textbook introduces the abstract concepts that underlie all programming languages, and provides tutorials on ML, Java, and Prolog. Webber (University of Wisconsin) explains the grammar that defines syntax and semantics, language systems, types, polymorphism, scope, memory location for variables, memory management, and parameters. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Textbooks

572 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Drew]

This is an excellent book on programming language concepts, with clear language and explanations. It's chapters interleave between programming language topics and an introduction to three major languages: ML, Java, and Prolog, through which the author teaches the fundamentals of three major programming paradigms (functional, object-oriented, and logic programming). It might seem that the amount of material in this book would make it difficult to consume, but the writing style is so clear that one can easily consume the entire book, with a substantial amount of learning, during a single 10 week college course. Motivated readers could do it in much less. This speaks to the clarity of the book, and the authors ability to cut to the chase, rather than to any lack in the material presented. There were a few discussions towards the end which could have used better setup, but overall the book deserves 5 stars.

[John Fourkiotis]

The book was excellent. However, the prolog chapters were a little bit difficult.