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Anyone read: Semantics with Applications: by Nielson and Nielson?

I'm looking for langauge theory, semantics books/resources that are good for self study and one I've found is:

Semantics with Applications: An Appetizer (Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science)

This book is pretty new (March 2007). Reading the first few pages of the first chapter looks like the authors start off at a reasonable pace. The thing that typically trips me up with resources I find online is the level of Maths. Specifically, the symbols used aren't symbols I'm used to seeing in something like calculus or real analysis.

Has anyone looked over this book? Thoughts, impressions?

By markt at 2007-12-18 00:22 | LtU Forum | previous forum topic | next forum topic | other blogs | 7013 reads

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My initial impression

My first impression from skimming this volume is that it is a nice introduction, although I wasn't encountering the material for the first time. (You can find an earlier semantics book by the same authors online here; there is some overlap with the new book.)

You should also check out Pierce's Types and Programming Languages, which features an excellent treatment of operational semantics and is also quite self-contained with regard to the background required.

By Will Benton at Tue, 2007-12-18 05:53 | login or register to post comments

It looks nourishing but is

It looks nourishing but is it appetizing? Can someone elaborate on the appetizing examples the authors present?

By Ehud Lamm at Tue, 2007-12-18 06:23 | login or register to post comments

online version

Thanks for that, I read most of the first two chapters of the online version today at work (ahem) and I found it to be very good. The authors clearly explained the syntax they were using and as I indicated this has been the major obstacle for me. A bit more math maturity helps too I think. I will most likely pick up the print version as I prefer reading from paper.

By markt at Tue, 2007-12-18 21:29 | login or register to post comments

Let us know how you find it.

Let us know how you find it.

By Ehud Lamm at Tue, 2007-12-18 22:06 | login or register to post comments

'Tis the best

I found this to be the gentlest and clearest introduction to the subject of semantics. The book gives a very accessible formal introduction to operational, denotational and axiomatic semantics and to program analysis.

I'm surprised by the amount of ground covered by such a slim book.

By Sriram Srinivasan at Fri, 2007-12-21 13:40 | login or register to post comments