imported>BattyBot: /* top */Removed/fixed incorrect author parameter(s), performed general fixes

2023-09-24T05:46:58Z

top: Removed/fixed incorrect author parameter(s), performed general fixes

New page

{{Infobox book
|italic title = force
| name = Essentials of Programming Languages
| image = EOPL 3rd edition cover.jpg
| caption =
| author = [[Daniel P. Friedman]], [[Mitchell Wand]], [[Christopher T. Haynes]]
| cover_artist =
| country =
| series =
| subject = [[Programming language]]s
| genre = [[Textbook]]
| publisher = [[MIT Press]]
| pub_date = April 2008 (3rd ed.)
| media_type =
| pages = 416
| isbn = 0-262-06279-8
| isbn_note = (3rd ed.)
| oclc =
| dewey =
| congress = QA76.7 .F73 2008
}}
'''''Essentials of Programming Languages''''' ('''''EOPL''''') is a textbook on [[programming language]]s by [[Daniel P. Friedman]], [[Mitchell Wand]], and [[Christopher T. Haynes]].

EOPL surveys the principles of programming languages from an operational perspective. It starts with an [[interpreter (computing)|interpreter]] in [[Scheme (programming language)|Scheme]] for a simple functional core language similar to the [[lambda calculus]] and then systematically adds constructs. For each addition, for example, variable assignment or thread-like control, the book illustrates an increase in expressive power of the programming language and a demand for new constructs for the formulation of a direct interpreter. The book also demonstrates that systematic transformations, say, [[store-passing style]] or [[continuation-passing style]], can eliminate certain constructs from the language in which the interpreter is formulated.

The second part of the book is dedicated to a systematic translation of the interpreter(s) into [[register machine]]s. The transformations show how to eliminate higher-order closures; continuation objects; recursive function calls; and more. At the end, the reader is left with an "interpreter" that uses nothing but tail-recursive function calls and assignment statements plus conditionals. It becomes trivial to translate this code into a C program or even an assembly program. As a bonus, the book shows how to pre-compute certain pieces of "meaning" and how to generate a representation of these pre-computations. Since this is the essence of compilation, the book also prepares the reader for a course on the principles of compilation and language translation, a related but distinct topic. Apart from the text explaining the key concepts, the book also comprises a series of exercises, enabling the readers to explore alternative designs and other issues.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/contributors/mitchell-wand|title=Mitchell Wand|website=The MIT Press|language=en|access-date=2019-08-05}}</ref>

Like [[Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs|SICP]], EOPL represents a significant departure from the prevailing textbook approach in the 1980s. At the time, a book on the principles of programming languages presented four to six (or even more) programming languages and discussed their programming idioms and their implementation at a high level. The most successful books typically covered [[ALGOL 60]] (and the so-called Algol family of programming languages), [[SNOBOL]], [[Lisp (programming language)|Lisp]], and [[Prolog]]. Even today, a fair number of textbooks on programming languages are just such surveys, though their scope has narrowed.

EOPL was started in 1983, when Indiana was one of the leading departments in programming languages research. Eugene Kohlbecker, one of Friedman's PhD students, transcribed and collected his "311 lectures". Other faculty members, including Mitch Wand and Christopher Haynes, started contributing and turned "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Meta-Universe"—as Kohlbecker had called it—into the systematic, interpreter and transformation-based survey that it is now. Over the 25 years of its existence, the book has become a near-classic; it is now in its third edition, including additional topics such as [[Type systems|types]] and [[Modular programming|modules]]. Its first part now incorporates ideas on programming from [[How to Design Programs|HtDP]], another unconventional textbook, which uses Scheme to teach the principles of program design. The authors, as well as [[Matthew Flatt]], have recently provided [[DrRacket]] plug-ins and language levels for teaching with EOPL.

EOPL has spawned at least two other related texts: Queinnec's<ref>{{Cite web|title=Christian Queinnec's home page|url=https://pages.lip6.fr/Christian.Queinnec/WWW/|website=pages.lip6.fr|access-date=2020-05-20}}</ref> ''Lisp in Small Pieces''<ref>{{Cite web|title=C. Queinnec's L.i.S.P book and code|url=https://pages.lip6.fr/Christian.Queinnec/WWW/LiSP.html|website=pages.lip6.fr|access-date=2020-05-20}}</ref> and Krishnamurthi's ''[[Programming Languages: Application and Interpretation]]''.

==See also==
*''[[Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs]]''
*''[[How to Design Programs]]''

==References==
{{reflist}}
* [http://www.eopl3.com/ Authors' home page for <cite>Essentials of Programming Languages</cite>, Third Edition]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070630055031/http://www.cs.indiana.edu/eopl/ Book homepage for first edition]
*[http://community.schemewiki.org/?eopl EoPL page] on Schemewiki

[[Category:Computer programming books]]
[[Category:Computer science books]]
[[Category:Programming language topics]]

Essentials of Programming Languages - Revision history

imported>BattyBot: /* top */Removed/fixed incorrect author parameter(s), performed general fixes