Theories Of Programming

This textbook is a broad but rigorous survey of the theoretical basis for the design, definition, and implementation of programming languages, and of systems for specifying and proving program behavior. It encompasses imperative and functional programming, as well as the ways of integrating these aspects into more general languages. Basic concepts and their properties are described with mathematical rigor, but the mathematical development is balanced by numerous examples of applications, particularly of program specification and proof, concurrent programming, functional programming (including the use of continuations and lazy evaluation), and type systems (including subtyping, polymorphism, and modularization). Assuming only knowledge of elementary programming, this text is perfect for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses in programming language theory, and will also appeal to researchers and professionals in designing or implementing computer languages.

Between good intentions and great results lies a program theory not just a list of tasks but a vision of what needs to happen, and how. Now widely used in government and not-for-profit organizations, program theory provides a coherent picture of how change occurs and how to improve performance. Purposeful Program Theory shows how to develop, represent, and use program theory thoughtfully and strategically to suit your particular situation, drawing on the fifty-year history of program theory and the authors' experiences over more than twenty-five years. "From needs assessment to intervention design, from implementation to outcomes evaluation, from policy formulation to policy execution and evaluation, program theory is paramount. But until now no book has examined these multiple uses of program theory in a comprehensive, understandable, and integrated way. This promises to be a breakthrough book, valuable to practitioners, program designers, evaluators, policy analysts, funders, and scholars who care about understanding why an intervention works or doesn't work." Michael Quinn Patton, author, Utilization-Focused Evaluation "Finally, the definitive guide to evaluation using program theory! Far from the narrow 'one true way' approaches to program theory, this book provides numerous practical options for applying program theory to fulfill different purposes and constraints, and guides the reader through the sound critical thinking required to select from among the options. The tour de force of the history and use of program theory is a truly global view, with examples from around the world and across the full range of content domains. A must-have for any serious evaluator." E. Jane Davidson, PhD, Real Evaluation Ltd. Companion Web site: josseybass.com/go/funnellrogers

There are several theories of programming. The first usable theory, often called "Hoare's Logic", is still probably the most widely known. In it, a specification is a pair of predicates: a precondition and postcondition (these and all technical terms will be defined in due course). Another popular and closely related theory by Dijkstra uses the weakest precondition predicate transformer, which is a function from programs and postconditions to preconditions. lones's Vienna Development Method has been used to advantage in some industries; in it, a specification is a pair of predicates (as in Hoare's Logic), but the second predicate is a relation. Temporal Logic is yet another formalism that introduces some special operators and quantifiers to describe some aspects of computation. The theory in this book is simpler than any of those just mentioned. In it, a specification is just a boolean expression. Refinement is just ordinary implication. This theory is also more general than those just mentioned, applying to both terminating and nonterminating computation, to both sequential and parallel computation, to both stand-alone and interactive computation. And it includes time bounds, both for algorithm classification and for tightly constrained real-time applications.

This book provides a synthesis of the theory of programming. It aims to use mathematical theory of programming to provide a similar basis for specification, design and implementation of programs. It is wide ranging both in its subject matter and also in its approach and style. The first five chapters justify and introduce the main concepts and methods to be used within the text, relating the goal of unification to the achievements of other branches of science and mathematics. The remaining chapters introduce more advanced programming language features one by one. The main methods of programming are summarised and concluded in a manner suitable for those already familiar with programming semantics. Definitions are accompanied by examples and the theorems by meticulous proof.

First published in 1998, this textbook is a broad but rigourous survey of the theoretical basis for the design, definition and implementation of programming languages and of systems for specifying and proving programme behaviour. Both imperative and functional programming are covered, as well as the ways of integrating these aspects into more general languages. Recognising a unity of technique beneath the diversity of research in programming languages, the author presents an integrated treatment of the basic principles of the subject. He identifies the relatively small number of concepts, such as compositional semantics, binding structure, domains, transition systems and inference rules, that serve as the foundation of the field. Assuming only knowledge of elementary programming and mathematics, this text is perfect for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses in programming language theory and also will appeal to researchers and professionals in designing or implementing computer languages.

Foundations of Program Evaluationheralds a thorough exploration of the field of program evaluation--looking back on its origins. By summarizing, comparing, and contrasting the work of seven major theorists of program evaluation, this book provides an important perspective on the current state of evaluation theory and provides suggestions for ways of improving its practice. Beginning in Chapter Two, the authors develop a conceptual framework to analyze how successfully each theory meets the specific criteria of its framework. Each subsequent chapter is devoted to the presentation of the theoretical and practical advice of a significant theorist--Michael Scriven, Donald Campbell, Carol Weiss, Joseph Wholey, Robert Stake, Lee Cronbach, and Peter Rossi.

A mathematically sophisticated introduction to Turing's theory, Boolean functions, automata, and formal languages.

This work presents a purely classical first-order logical approach to the field of study in theoretical computer science sometimes referred to as the theory of programs, or programming theory. This field essentially attempts to provide a precise mathematical basis for the common activities involved in reasoning about computer programs and programming languages, and it also attempts to find practical applications in the areas of program specification, verification and programming language design. Many different approaches with different mathematical frameworks have been proposed as a basis for programming theory. They differ in the mathe matical machinery they use to define and investigate programs and program properties and they also differ in the concepts they deal with to understand the programming paradigm. Different approaches use different tools and viewpoints to characterize the data environment of programs. Most of the approaches are related to mathe matical logic and they provide their own logic. These logics, however, are very eclectic since they use special entities to reflect a special world of programs, and also, they are usually incomparable with each other. This Babel's mess irritated us and we decided to peel off the eclectic com ponents and try to answer all the questions by using classical first-order logic.