The Little Mler

with a foreword by Robin Milnerand drawings by Duane Bibby Over the past few years, ML has emerged as one of the most important members of the family of programming languages. Many professors in the United States and other countries use ML to teach courses on the principles of programming and on programming languages. In addition, ML has emerged as a natural language for software engineering courses because it provides the most sophisticated and expressive module system currently available.Felleisen and Friedman are well known for gently introducing readers to difficult ideas. The Little MLer is an introduction to thinking about programming and the ML programming language. The authors introduce those new to programming, as well as those experienced in other programming languages, to the principles of types, computation, and program construction. Most important, they help the reader to think recursively with types about programs.

An introduction to dependent types, demonstrating the most beautiful aspects, one step at a time. A program's type describes its behavior. Dependent types are a first-class part of a language, and are much more powerful than other kinds of types; using just one language for types and programs allows program descriptions to be as powerful as the programs they describe. The Little Typer explains dependent types, beginning with a very small language that looks very much like Scheme and extending it to cover both programming with dependent types and using dependent types for mathematical reasoning. Readers should be familiar with the basics of a Lisp-like programming language, as presented in the first four chapters of The Little Schemer. The first five chapters of The Little Typer provide the needed tools to understand dependent types; the remaining chapters use these tools to build a bridge between mathematics and programming. Readers will learn that tools they know from programming—pairs, lists, functions, and recursion—can also capture patterns of reasoning. The Little Typer does not attempt to teach either practical programming skills or a fully rigorous approach to types. Instead, it demonstrates the most beautiful aspects as simply as possible, one step at a time.

foreword by Ralph E. Johnson and drawings by Duane Bibby 'This is a book of 'why' not 'how.' If you are interested in the nature of computation and curious about the very idea behind object orientation, this book is for you. This book will engage your brain (if not your tummy). Through its sparkling interactive style, you will learn about three essential OO concepts: interfaces, visitors, and factories. A refreshing change from the 'yet another Java book' phenomenon. Every serious Java programmer should own a copy.' -- Gary McGraw, Ph.D., Research Scientist at Reliable Software Technologies and coauthor of Java Security Java is a new object-oriented programming language that was developed by Sun Microsystems for programming the Internet and intelligent appliances. In a very short time it has become one of the most widely used programming languages for education as well as commercial applications. Design patterns, which have moved object-oriented programming to a new level, provide programmers with a language to communicate with others about their designs. As a result, programs become more readable, more reusable, and more easily extensible. In this book, Matthias Felleisen and Daniel Friedman use a small subset of Java to introduce pattern-directed program design. With their usual clarity and flair, they gently guide readers through the fundamentals of object-oriented programming and pattern-based design. Readers new to programming, as well as those with some background, will enjoy their learning experience as they work their way through Felleisen and Friedman's dialogue. src='/graphics/yellowball.gif' href='/books/FELTP/Java-fm.html'Foreword and Preface

Summary Functional Programming in Scala is a serious tutorial for programmers looking to learn FP and apply it to the everyday business of coding. The book guides readers from basic techniques to advanced topics in a logical, concise, and clear progression. In it, you'll find concrete examples and exercises that open up the world of functional programming. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology Functional programming (FP) is a style of software development emphasizing functions that don't depend on program state. Functional code is easier to test and reuse, simpler to parallelize, and less prone to bugs than other code. Scala is an emerging JVM language that offers strong support for FP. Its familiar syntax and transparent interoperability with Java make Scala a great place to start learning FP. About the Book Functional Programming in Scala is a serious tutorial for programmers looking to learn FP and apply it to their everyday work. The book guides readers from basic techniques to advanced topics in a logical, concise, and clear progression. In it, you'll find concrete examples and exercises that open up the world of functional programming. This book assumes no prior experience with functional programming. Some prior exposure to Scala or Java is helpful. What's Inside Functional programming concepts The whys and hows of FP How to write multicore programs Exercises and checks for understanding About the Authors Paul Chiusano and Rúnar Bjarnason are recognized experts in functional programming with Scala and are core contributors to the Scalaz library. Table of Contents PART 1 INTRODUCTION TO FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING What is functional programming? Getting started with functional programming in Scala Functional data structures Handling errors without exceptions Strictness and laziness Purely functional state PART 2 FUNCTIONAL DESIGN AND COMBINATOR LIBRARIES Purely functional parallelism Property-based testing Parser combinators PART 3 COMMON STRUCTURES IN FUNCTIONAL DESIGN Monoids Monads Applicative and traversable functors PART 4 EFFECTS AND I/O External effects and I/O Local effects and mutable state Stream processing and incremental I/O

An introduction to writing proofs about computer programs, written in an accessible question-and-answer style, complete with step-by-step examples and a simple proof assistant. The Little Prover introduces inductive proofs as a way to determine facts about computer programs. It is written in an approachable, engaging style of question-and-answer, with the characteristic humor of The Little Schemer (fourth edition, MIT Press). Sometimes the best way to learn something is to sit down and do it; the book takes readers through step-by-step examples showing how to write inductive proofs. The Little Prover assumes only knowledge of recursive programs and lists (as presented in the first three chapters of The Little Schemer) and uses only a few terms beyond what novice programmers already know. The book comes with a simple proof assistant to help readers work through the book and complete solutions to every example.

The notion that "thinking about computing is one of the most exciting things the human mind can do" sets both The Little Schemer (formerly known as The Little LISPer) and its new companion volume, The Seasoned Schemer, apart from other books on LISP. The authors' enthusiasm for their subject is compelling as they present abstract concepts in a humorous and easy-to-grasp fashion. Together, these books will open new doors of thought to anyone who wants to find out what computing is really about. The Little Schemer introduces computing as an extension of arithmetic and algebra; things that everyone studies in grade school and high school. It introduces programs as recursive functions and briefly discusses the limits of what computers can do. The authors use the programming language Scheme, and interesting foods to illustrate these abstract ideas. The Seasoned Schemer informs the reader about additional dimensions of computing: functions as values, change of state, and exceptional cases. The Little LISPer has been a popular introduction to LISP for many years. It had appeared in French and Japanese. The Little Schemer and The Seasoned Schemer are worthy successors and will prove equally popular as textbooks for Scheme courses as well as companion texts for any complete introductory course in Computer Science.

A completely revised edition, offering new design recipes for interactive programs and support for images as plain values, testing, event-driven programming, and even distributed programming. This introduction to programming places computer science at the core of a liberal arts education. Unlike other introductory books, it focuses on the program design process, presenting program design guidelines that show the reader how to analyze a problem statement, how to formulate concise goals, how to make up examples, how to develop an outline of the solution, how to finish the program, and how to test it. Because learning to design programs is about the study of principles and the acquisition of transferable skills, the text does not use an off-the-shelf industrial language but presents a tailor-made teaching language. For the same reason, it offers DrRacket, a programming environment for novices that supports playful, feedback-oriented learning. The environment grows with readers as they master the material in the book until it supports a full-fledged language for the whole spectrum of programming tasks. This second edition has been completely revised. While the book continues to teach a systematic approach to program design, the second edition introduces different design recipes for interactive programs with graphical interfaces and batch programs. It also enriches its design recipes for functions with numerous new hints. Finally, the teaching languages and their IDE now come with support for images as plain values, testing, event-driven programming, and even distributed programming.