For undergraduate and beginning graduate students this textbook explains andexamines the central concepts used in modern programming languages such asfunctions ... » 

For undergraduate and beginning graduate students this textbook explains andexamines the central concepts used in modern programming languages such asfunctions types memory management and control. The book is unique in itscomprehensive presentation and comparison of major objectoriented programminglanguages. Separate chapters examine the history of objects Simula andSmalltalk and the prominent languages C and Java. The author presentsfoundational topics such as lambda calculus and denotational semantics in aneasytoread informal style focusing on the main insights provided by thesetheories. Advanced topics include concurrency concurrent objectorientedprogramming program components and interlanguage interoperability. A chapteron logic programming illustrates the importance of specialized programmingmethods for certain kinds of problems. This book will give the reader a betterunderstanding of the issues and tradeoffs that arise in programming languagedesign and a better appreciation of the advantages and pitfalls of theprogramming languages they use. «