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misc-books
| Lua Shines |
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Some accolades for the language and the book Programming in Lua.
Complementing the delights of PIL are the progress of version 5.0, which it documents. 5.0 includes co-routines, tail calls, booleans, "weak tables", improvements in exception handling, lexical scoping, and metatables.
Posted to Misc-Books by Chris Rathman on 5/22/04; 3:13:48 PM
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| A Practical Theory of Programming |
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E.C.R.Hehner, a Practical Theory of Programming,
second edition, 2004 January 1.
The book, originally published by Springer-Verlag in 1993 is now online.
I haven't read it, but it looks rather intriguing (check, for example, section 5.7 on Probabilistic Programming).
If anyone is more familiar with the book, I'd be glad to hear what you think.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 4/28/04; 2:50:21 AM
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| 2nd edition of Code Complete |
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This item is not directly programming language related, but I think it may be of interest to quite a few LtU readers anyway.
Steve McConnell is preparing a 2nd edition of Code Complete, and is making draft chapters available online for review.
Even though the book isn't about programming languages as such, quite a few of the issues discussed in the book are influenced by the choice of programming language. Perhaps a few comments from functional programming experts can result in Haskell being mentioned in the book, which undoubtedly is going to be widely read...
Keep in mind, however, that the book is quite introductory and focuses on mainstream techniques.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 2/27/04; 11:46:21 AM
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| Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation |
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Shriram Krishnamurthi, Brown University.
This is the text for my course at Brown, which I supplement with some
material that I discuss in the Preface. The course uses Scheme and is
interpreter-based, but diverges considerably from EoPL in both style
and coverage. In particular, it is part of my continuing attempt to
find a happy medium between the interpreter and survey-of-languages
schools of teaching programming languages.
I was quite fond of Shriram's previous set of lecture notes, and the lecture notes cum book he produced with Matthias Felleisen.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 12/17/03; 5:27:12 AM
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| Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices |
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Getting ready for a full out assault on Oracle, so I've been reading a lot of PL/SQL material. Had Feuerstein's book recommended as a way to get a quick immersion into the Oracle programming culture. The book is comprised of 120 suggestions of things to-do and not-to-do. Some rather pedantic, but by and large informative, being an authoritative source for PL/SQL best practices. Having completed the text, I'd also recommend it to anyone using PL/SQL.
From a programming language standpoint, I find the genre of Best Practices or Style Guides to be interesting. Some languages have a text that serves the purpose of both defining and setting the style used for the language - K&R comes to mind. My favorite guide would have to be Smalltalk With Style which is an in-depth look at the best practices that have informally cropped up in the Smalltalk world.
Posted to Misc-Books by Chris Rathman on 8/18/03; 8:53:44 AM
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| The Little MLer |
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Finished working thru the book earlier this week, so I thought I'd give an opinion. The style of the Little books is pedagogic - concentrating on drumming home some lessons about programming in general and the language constructs in particular. In order to get anything out of it, you do have to work through the examples. Of course, the same can be said of any programming text but this one is especially so.
I give the Little MLer high marks in terms of covering the topics of defining datatypes and signatures, and showing how to manipulate them within functions. Matthias especially concentrates on recursion - both within the datatypes and functions.
On the downside, the author should have stuck with more concrete examples for a little longer - food and pizza are abandoned somewhere in the middle for more abstract X's & Y's. I also had high hopes for the last chapter on Functors - I've had a mental block on this for some time having got stuck in chapter #7 of Paulson's ML for the Working Programmer. The Little MLer has some interesting lessons on Functors, but in the end they leave me more confused than when I started.
Ok, so the point of the book is not so much to teach ML but rather to teach valuable programming lessons. In that area, I think the book succeeds.
Posted to Misc-Books by Chris Rathman on 7/27/03; 2:18:16 PM
Discuss (12 responses)
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| Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective |
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Code-reading requires its own set of skills, and the ability to determine which technique you use when is crucial. In this book, Diomidis Spinellis uses more than 600 real-world examples to show you how to identify good (and bad) code: how to read it, what to look for, and how to use this knowledge to improve your own code.
I haven't seen this book yet, but it sounds very interesting. Seems like something I can use in my code reading workshops. So if anyone read the book, please let us know what you think about it.
Interestingly enough, open source projects don't choose programming languages based on readability. This is one of things Ada fans are really frustrated about...
But, to be fair, open source did change some of the dynamics in the programming language market place. More Python and less Java than you would have predicted a couple of years ago. Is readability part of the explanation?
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 7/19/03; 1:35:18 AM
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| The Fun of Programming |
- Fun with Binary Heap Trees; C. Okasaki
- Specification-based Testing with QuickCheck; K. Claessen & J. Hughes
- Origami Programming; J. Gibbons
- Describing and Interpreting Music in Haskell; P. Hudak
- Mechanising Fusion; G. Sittampalam & O. de Moor
- How to Write a Financial Contract; S. Peyton Jones & J-M. Eber
- Functional Images; C. Elliott
- Functional Hardware Description in Lava; K. Claessen, M. Sheeran & S. Singh
- Combinators for Logic Programming; M. Spivey & S. Seres
- Arrows and Computation; R. Paterson
- A Prettier Printer; P. Wadler
- Fun with Phantom Types; R. Hinze
Seems to be the proceedings from this symposium. Looks interesting.
Maybe some of the papers are on-line?
Posted to Misc-Books by andrew cooke on 5/27/03; 1:41:08 PM
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| CSP book online in PDF |
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Tony Hoare's classic book Communicating Sequential Processes is now freely available for download in PDF. The book was first published in 1985, and has been converted into a very nice PDF by Jim Davies.
The book describes a way of building concurrent systems by combining sequential processes that run in parallel, and a formal framework for thinking about them. The influence of CSP can clearly be seen in languages like Erlang and Concurrent ML.
Posted to Misc-Books by Luke Gorrie on 4/7/03; 5:54:15 AM
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| C++ Templates: The Complete Guide |
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A book review on Slashdot.
A thorough, exhaustively complete treatment of a complex subject. An essential reference for C++ programmers and a lengthy and boring book for anyone else.
I'm currently in the process on finishing Andrei Alexandrescu's Modern C++ Design, and don't have it in me to start reading another C++ templates book, at least not right away.
I must also admit that right now I do not have it in me to read the Slashdot thread that follows this review.
It is worth noting that this book was written by the moderators of comp.lang.c++.moderated so it should be technically accurate.
Posted to Misc-Books by Dan Shappir on 3/22/03; 11:53:45 AM
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| Crenshaw: Let's build a compiler |
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(via comp.compilers)
Attached is a formatted version of Crenshaw's Let's build a compiler in doc
format. It's not formatted to the best possible extent, but it's fine for
viewing/printing/converting to html.
(I have absolutely no contribution to it's technical content. I am not
responsible for any errors that might have crept in during formatting.
Infact, i've not yet verified if anything is in proper order).
o All tutor*.txt files have been retained
o Only an excerpt from readme.txt is included
o All part's have heading 1. All subheadings are converted to heading 2.
There are also PDF and compressed PDF versions.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 3/17/03; 2:28:37 PM
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| Bitter Java |
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Bitter Java. Bruce A. Tate. 368 pages. ISBN 193011043X
The book is now available for free download (registration required).
This book is a systematic account of common server-side Java programming mistakes, their causes and solutions. It covers antipatterns for base Java and J2EE concepts such as Servlets, JSPs, EJBs, enterprise connection models, and scalability.
Better than selling more snake oil.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 7/12/02; 4:14:32 AM
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| J for C programmers |
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I don't have the time to check this right now, but since I am great fan of Iverson and J (anyone who comes up with a phrase like notation as a tool for thought earns a gold LtU membership), I must mention this on the homepage.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 6/11/02; 7:32:56 AM
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| Computing with Cells and Atoms |
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Computing with Cells and Atoms : An Introduction to Quantum, DNA and Membrane Computing by Cristian S. Calude, Gheorghe Paun.
Ages ago, when this site was so young we only had two contributing editors (thanks Andrew and Chris!), we agreed that it would be ok if very rarely we would mention interesting books, that are not directly related to programming languages, but may interest LtU readers none the less. Well, I decided to mention this book...
As you all know I am a fan of the biology as computation school (I've been head saying that biology departments should be integrated into CS departments  ) This book explores several important unconventional computational models many of which are inspired by biology.
The book concentrates on DNA computing, membrane computing, and quantum computing. The approach taken is formal: each computational model is described as a formal system, roughly based on concepts from the relevant physical science. Many theorems are presented, though many are left without proof.
Though the book is quite technical, it is filled with humour and curiosity. Let me quote the last sentence from the book, to give you a taste: At least from the point of view of funamental research, of general human knowledge, unconventional Computing is already a successful adventure of the spirit.
Why did I decide to mention this book on LtU? First of all, I know there are others interested in biology reading LtU. But mainly it is beacuse I think there are interesting connections between our subject and bio-inspired computing. Many computational models begin with formal language theory, which is also part of the foundations of PL theory. On a higher level, PL design is all about compuational models, and quantum and DNA computing are, of course, important and interesting computational models.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 6/4/02; 12:50:23 PM
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| Harper: Programming Languages: Theory and Practice |
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Robert Harper. Programming Languages: Theory and Practice (working draft, May 2002)
A book draft, based on lecture notes Robert Harper used at CMU, and Andrew Appel used at Princeton University.
The book covers all the usual topics (inductive defintions, concrete and abstract syntax, substitution, type systems, continuations, etc.) Of interest may be the discussion of cost semantics, strict semantics in lazy languages, and the detailed discussion of subtyping.
Most of the book talks about pure languages, and uses MinML.
The presentation is a bit more formal than in most introductory textbooks, and many important ideas are presented and proved as theorems.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 5/30/02; 12:49:07 PM
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| Language Myths |
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Language Myths by Laurie Bauer (Editor), Peter Trudgill (Editor). 208 pages Penguin USA (Paper). September 1999.
I've been meaning to mention this book for quite awhile now. The book is a collection of essays on various language myths . Myths as in 'well established ideas that are not quite correct'. The essays are quite opinionated. To quote the introduction: If they think that the idea is wrong, they have said so. If they think it is based on a false premise, they have said so. If they think that people may not realize where the idea comes from, they have explained this.
To give an idea of the scope of this fairly short book, here are some of the titles from the table of contents: Some Languages are Just Not Good Enough; English spelling is Kattastroffik; Women Talk
Too Much; Some Languages Have No Grammer.
Many of the essays deal with social issues related to language (Socio-linguistics). Alas, this results in many repetitions of the same ideas. Some of the essays, so it seems, are more statements of personal conviction than professional discussions of contested issues.
Still, the book is worth checking out if you are interested language. (I particularly enjoyed the essay on Aboriginie languages.)
I wonder how a book similar to this one but focused on programming languages would look like. I agree with the premise given in the introduction that users do not need to have a conscious knowledge of how a system works in order to exploit it. Explanations of the system require the type of knowledge that only the specialist can provide. That's why I think a book like this one only containing essays by programming language specialists, may be quite interesting.
What topics would such a book cover?
1. OOP is best design methodology 2. Static typing reduces programming speed 3. Java/C++/C is the best programming language ever designed. 4. C is faster than Scheme 5. All programming languages are basically the same.
I am waiting to hear suggestions for other chapter titles...
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 4/22/02; 6:51:44 AM
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| Isabelle/HOL: A Proof Assistant for Higher-Order Logic |
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Tobias Nipkow and Lawrence C. Paulson and Markus Wenzel. Isabelle/HOL -- A Proof Assistant for Higher-Order Logic. LNCS 2283.
This book is a self-contained introduction to interactive proof in higher-order logic (HOL), using the proof assistant Isabelle2002. It is a tutorial for potential users rather than a monograph for researchers.
It is quite exciting to see how familiar functional programming constructs can be used directly inside a theorem prover. But beware, HOL is not the same as Haskell:
As we have indicated, the requirement for total functions is an essential characteristic
of HOL. It is only because of totality that reasoning in HOL is comparatively
easy. More generally, the philosophy in HOL is to refrain from asserting
arbitrary axioms (such as function definitions whose totality has not been proved)
because they quickly lead to inconsistencies. Instead, fixed constructs for introducing
types and functions are offered (such as datatype and primrec) which are
guaranteed to preserve consistency.
Still it is quite cool to see how much goes into proving that reverse(reverse(lst))=lst. For the detailed proof see chapter 2: Functional Programming in HOL.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 4/11/02; 3:57:52 AM
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| Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software |
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Free as in Freedom, Richard Stallman's Crusade for Free Software. By Sam Williams.
This is almost off topic, but I stil think it is worth mentioning here.
I think open source and free software (and yes! I didn't capitalize these terms) have had a huge impact on the programming language landscape.
They changed many aspects of programming (e.g., large, distributed teams, communicating solely via email) thus influencing the type of tools people use.
More importantly I think, freely available compilers and IDEs allowed many niche languages to survive, and eventually gain market share.
And there's always Emacs (and Elisp) to talk about...
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 4/3/02; 1:33:51 AM
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| On Lisp, On Line |
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(via lemonodor)
This is identical to the printed version, except that nine diagrams are missing. If you see a blank figure, that's what happened. These unfortunately seem to be lost.
Paul Graham's classic (and out of print) book on Lisp progamming is now online.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 2/2/02; 8:11:37 AM
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| Online Books and Lecture Notes in Mathematics |
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This is not directly programming language related, but contains interesting stuff. The reason I decided to link this in is that we have been discussion the algebraic treatment of ADTs (via algebras and coalgebras), and I though some links about universal algebra may be appropriate.
This list of links also contains some references to tpics closely related to CS, like algorithms and computation, and cryptography.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 12/23/01; 3:53:23 AM
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| A book to learn from? |
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This is the archive of the discussion after the light languages workshop.
I am linking this in beacuse of the discussion about a good book to learn the practical parts of PL theory... Basically this is about what's missing from EOPL2 (and perhaps LiSP).
For my opinion, see previous LtU message.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 11/27/01; 5:56:24 AM
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| Erlang in Real Time |
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`Erlang in Real Time' (ISBN: 0864447434) was written by Maurice Castro to support the course `CS584 Real Time and Concurrent Systems' at RMIT University in 1998. A revised edition is available in postscript form from this site in addition to the sample code used in the course.
Many examples are provided, most of them with C versions for comparison.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 10/6/01; 3:45:07 AM
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| Programming by Demonstration |
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(via CamWorld)
This book grew out of a workshop on Programming by Demonstration that was held at Apple Computer in March, 1992. The workshop was an opportunity for current researchers to discuss their work with the pioneers in the field. David Smith demonstrated a HyperCard simulation of his Pygmalion system, which was the first system for programming by demonstration and the inspiration for the work that has followed. Henry Lieberman ported his classic Tinker system to the Macintosh so that he could give a live demonstration at the workshop. This was followed by classic videos of the early systems, live demonstrations of the newer systems, and open discussion on topics in the field.
End user programming is still a worthy goal in my book, though I don't think it should aim at eliminating the need for programmers. This book (all of it is online) is a great resource.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 7/29/01; 11:21:39 AM
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| The pi-calculus: a Theory of Mobile Processes |
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Mobile systems, whose components communicate and change their structure,
now pervade the informational world and the wider world of which it is a
part. The science of mobile systems is as yet immature, however.
This book presents the pi-calculus, a theory of mobile systems. The
pi-calculus provides a conceptual framework for understanding mobility, and
mathematical tools for expressing systems and reasoning about their
behaviours.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 7/14/01; 8:10:40 AM
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| Programming language theory texts online |
I kind of stumbled upon this page looking for the LC book - I'm not sure if it's been posted here before or not. Anyhow, it's a good set of links for many of the programming language books which are available online. Now if I can only find the time. :-)
Posted to Misc-Books by Chris Rathman on 7/5/01; 10:11:06 PM
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| Java and the Java Virtual Machine - Definition, Verification |
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This book provides a high-level description, together with a
mathematical and an experimental analysis, of Java and of the Java
Virtual Machine (JVM), including a standard compiler of Java programs to JVM code and the security critical bytecode verifier component of the JVM.
The code from the book, and other related stuff can be found on the here.
The book is organised by layers: it start with the imperative subset of Java, moves on to procedural code, then to OO, exceptions, and concurrency.
The book covers compilation and the execution of bytecodes as well.
I haven't seen the book, but it looks interesting. Let us know if you have comments!
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 6/13/01; 4:54:57 AM
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| C Books |
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The MIT discussion (see yesterday's item) included Guy Steele. One of his books is the excellent C, A Reference Manual (which I'd recommend above K&R).
Since C doesn't get much of a mention here, I thought I'd also take the chance to recommend Expert C Programming by van der Linden.
Personally, I enjoy writing in C - it's a refreshing change to keep things "simple". The merits of high and low level languages are being discussed in a leisurely manner here.
Posted to Misc-Books by andrew cooke on 5/18/01; 12:43:32 AM
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| Concepts, Techniques and Models of CP |
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[pdf]
[ps]
[ps.gz]
...This book provides a broad and deep view of practical computer programming. [It covers] all major programming concepts and techniques...
Originally announced here (that link includes a request for feedback). This is from the
Oz/Mozart people. Looks impressive (incomplete/draft) - might even be the next "good" book on programming?
Posted to Misc-Books by andrew cooke on 3/16/01; 2:16:22 AM
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| The Man Who Listens to Horses |
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Not really a programming book, but a book about language none the less. This is the autobiography of Monty Roberts, whom you might have seen on TV. Mr. Roberts is a horse trainer. You might wonder what has he got to do with language. The interesting thing is the Roberts doesn't break horses with whips and beatings. He claims to have figured out the horse's method of communication (i.e., language) and uses it to achieve join-up with horses. I've seen him on TV, and got the book. It is pretty remarkable. Makes you wonder about language.
Roberts, it seems, figured out some basic vocabulary of horses. It also seems he knows the order of gestures in the joining-up process, but I am not sure this should be considered syntax. So did he really discover a language? I am not sure.
Another book that gives an interesting perspective on language is Thinking In Pictures by Temple Grandin. The authoer is an autistic woman, who is a university professor and world wide expert on animal behaviour. The book raises some tough questions on verbal versus other modes of thinking.
Both books are also full of human compassion and feeling. I think they are worth reading.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 2/22/01; 1:40:26 PM
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| APL Books |
This online store offers a variety of APL books and learning materials. The online content is minimal, but the book descriptions are worth a check. Some of the books mentioned are quite old, and I guess not available in your college bookstore.
Posted to Misc-Books by Ehud Lamm on 1/30/01; 7:02:13 AM
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