Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Essentials of Programming Languages - 2nd Edition by Daniel P. Friedman, Mitchell Wand, Christopher T. Haynes ISBN: 0-262-06217-8 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 29 January, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $60.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.57 (14 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Essential but insufficient
Comment: For better or for worse, this book is probably the best general "hands-on" introduction to programming language concepts, showing students how to write interpreters for a variety of programming-language paradigms. It covers what many computer scientists consider the most important ones: functional programming, object-oriented programming, type systems/inference, and logic programming (though it gives short shrift to the latter).
Teachers love the book because it takes a unified, minimalist approach, using the simple, elegant language Scheme. Students seem to hate the book for the same reason, complaining that the details of Scheme divert attention from the concepts themselves.
This situation makes it essential to supplement the book with programming assignments in actual languages (Java, ML, Prolog), so students can see what all the trouble is for, and what's really exciting about the ideas in the book. Otherwise, reading this book is like learning how to build a car without ever having seen one!
Rating: 5
Summary: A Great Programming Language Text
Comment: I've used this book to teach an undergraduate programming language for 4 years now. I believe it to be the finest text in the area because of its approach to the subject. Many books in this area are what I call smorgasborg books--leading the reader through one language syntax after another without ever getting to what really matters: programming language operation. In EoPL, Freidman, Wand, and Haynes solve this problem by using a standard technique of computer science: using the right langauge for the job. In this case the job is progrmaming language operation and the language is Scheme. Don't be fooled into thinking you're learning Scheme--you're actually learning a great deal about programming languages along the way.
The book covers the operational semantics of the most important features in programming languages and give users a clear understanding of the infrastructure of programming langauges along the way. Highly recommended.
See http://lal.cs.byu.edu/cs330 for a course based on this book.
Rating: 2
Summary: Be sure to have your dictionary on hand while reading...
Comment: I honestly don't understand why professors choose this book to teach programming language concepts/semantics. The best books to learn from are written in simple, easy to read language, and with a well-designed index. EOPL lacks both of these attributes.
As a part of the class we had to take reading quizzes on each section, meaning we had to read this book cover to cover. Friedman used complex, difficult to understand language to teach concepts that themselves were difficult to grasp. To make matters worse, the professor simply read from the book during lecture, failing to clarify the mysteries created by Friedman.
An optional book for the class was Programming Language Pragmatics. It explained the implementations of Object Oriented languages, type checking, assembly, etc. using multiple languages people have used before, unlike scheme. I would suggest looking at that book before choosing EOPL.
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
