Programming Language Explorations helps its readers gain proficiency in programming language practice and theory by presenting both example-focused, chapter-length explorations of fourteen important programming languages and detailed discussions of the major concepts transcending multiple languages. A language-by-language approach is sandwiched between an introductory chapter that motivates and lays out the major concepts of the field and a final chapter that brings together all that was learned in the middle chapters into a coherent and organized view of the field.
Each of the featured languages in the middle chapters is introduced with a common trio of example programs and followed by a tour of its basic language features and coverage of interesting aspects from its type system, functional forms, scoping rules, concurrency patterns, and metaprogramming facilities. These chapters are followed by a brief tour of over 40 additional languages designed to enhance the reader’s appreciation of the breadth of the programming language landscape and to motivate further study.
Targeted to both professionals and advanced college undergraduates looking to expand the range of languages and programming patterns they can apply in their work and studies, the book pays attention to modern programming practices, keeps a focus on cutting-edge programming patterns, and provides many runnable examples, all of which are available in the book’s companion GitHub repository. The combination of conceptual overviews with exploratory example-focused coverage of individual programming languages provides its readers with the foundation for more effectively authoring programs, prompting AI programming assistants, and, perhaps most importantly, learning—and creating—new languages.
It is 7:18am, I've just finished the last 5 pages of a book and am ready to write some review. I definitely enjoyed the reading process. This book helped me to get more familiar with functional languages and forced me to try them out, which was a pleasant experience, as well as gave an insight into some of the topics of language design. It greatly aids one to enrich one's knowledge of how languages are actually designed, answering questions of why certain design decisions have been made. The book left me with a realization of how rich the world of programming languages is and how little I know about them. I'm so glad to have stumbled upon it. 5 stars, worth reading, my huge respect to authors. Thank you!