The World of Programming Languages

Preface. - Acknowledgements. - 1. Introduction. - 1. 1 The Building of the Tower of Babel. - 1. 2 What Is a Programming Language?. - 1. 3 Why Study Programming Languages?. - 1. 4 What Should We Look for in a Language?. - 1. 5 Language Design Issues. - 1. 6 The Study of Programming Languages. - Further Reading. - 2. Elements of a Programming Language. - 2. 1 Informal Description of Mini-language Core. - 2. 2 Informal Semantics of Mini-language Core. - 2. 3 Language Design and the Programming Process. - 2. 4 The Definition of Programming Languages. - 2. 5 The Formal Description of Syntax. - 2. 6 Other Context-free Syntax Definitions. - Further Reading. - 3. Names Locations and Values. - 3. 1 Mini-language Ref. - 3. 2 Declarations. - 3. 3 Assignment. - 3. 4 Statements as Expressions. - 3. 5 Where to Look: Algol 68 Smalltalk. - Further Reading. - 4. Control Structures. - 4. 1 Mini-language Control. - 4. 2 Basic Control Structures and Flowgraphs. - 4. 3 Theorems on Control Structures. - 4. 4 Other One-in One-out Control Structures. - 4. 5 The Goto Statement and Label Values. - 4. 6 Conclusions. - 4. 7 Where to Look: Pascal Ada. - Further Reading. - 5. Data Types. - 5. 1 Mini-language Type. - 5. 2 The Meaning of Type. - 5. 3 Primitive Types. - 5. 4 Array Types. - 5. 5 Record Types. - 5. 6 Type Checking. - 5. 7 Where to Look: Fortran PL/I. - Further Reading. - 6. Input and Output. - 6. 1 Mini-language Format. - 6. 2 Varieties of Input-output Specifications. - 6. 3 Communication with the Outside World. - 6. 4 Where to Look: Fortran Cobol Ada. - Further Reading. - 7. Procedures and Parameters. - 7. 1 Mini-language Procedures. - 7. 2 Procedures as Abstractions. - 7. 3 Arguments and Parameters. - 7. 4 Value-returning Procedures. - 7. 5 Coroutines. - 7. 6 Where to Look: PL/I Ada. - Further Reading. - 8. Nesting and Scope. - 8. 1 Mini-language Scope. - 8. 2 The Idea of Scope. - 8. 3 Storage Allocation. - 8. 4 Dynamic Scope. - 8. 5 Where to Look: Pascal PL/I APL. - Further Reading. - 9. Definition of New Data Types. - 9. 1 Mini-language Typedef. - 9. 2 Type Definitions. - 9. 3 Definition of Structured Types. - 9. 4 User Defined Operators. - 9. 5 Where to Look: Pascal Algol 68. - Further Reading. - 10. Dynamically Varying Structures. - 10. 1 Mini-language Structures. - 10. 2 Dynamically Varying Data Structures. - 10. 3 Pointers. - 10. 4 Design Criteria for Data Structures. - 10. 5 Dynamic Allocation of Storage. - 10. 6 Where to Look: PL/I Pascal Ada. - Further Reading. - 11. Exception Handling. - 11. 1 Mini-language Exceptions. - 11. 2 Exceptions. - 11. 3 Issues in Exception Handling. - 11. 4 Where to Look: PL/I Ada. - Further Reading. - 12. Parallel Processing. - 12. 1 Mini-language Parallel. - 12. 2 A First Solution to the Decoding Problem. - 12. 3 Putting a Buffer in a Task. - 12. 4 Interrupting. - 12. 5 Issues in Parallel Processing. - 12. 6 Where to Look: Concurrent Pascal Modula-2 Ada. - Further Reading. - 13. Separately Compiled Modules. - 13. 1 Mini-language Modules. - 13. 2 Packaging Subprograms. - 13. 3 Abstract Data Types. - 13. 4 Where to Look: PL/I Modula 2 Ada Smalltalk. - Further Reading. - 14. The Swamp of Complexity. - 14. 1 The Forms of Complexity. - 14. 2 Escaping from the Swamp. - References. Language: English