Concepts of Programming Languages [With Access Code]

by Robert W. Sebesta

Book Overview

For courses in computer programming. Evaluates the fundamentals of contemporary computer programming languages Concepts of Computer Programming Languages introduces students to the fundamental... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0136073476
• ISBN13: 9780136073475
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Longman
• Length: 765 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.5" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

good service, good book

This book is useful to understand the basic of programming language and it is also a common textbook for most of university. And the international delivery is so fast. I like this book as well as the service you provided.

Solid Overview

I bought this for a programming languages concepts class and this book definitely has some very solid principles and concepts that everyone should know about programming languages. I would recommend this if someone is looking into what really makes up a programming language and a deeper look at theory over trial.

Great for students, essential for professionals

Concepts of Programming Languages by Robert W. Sebesta, Sixth edition is truly a well-written book. Perhaps one of the best books written on this topic. Sebesta has done an exceptional job conveying the topic to the reader, making a complex topic both easy to read and understand. This textbook is good for any college student or professional trying to get a feel of how the most popular programming languages have evolved in the past 4 decades, and what sets these languages apart. Topics in this book range from Zuse's Plankalkul (the first programming language) to how Exception Handling is done in Java and Logic Programming and everything in between. Interviews with some of the pioneers of our time such as James Gosling (the creator of Java) and Bjarne Stroustrup (the designer of C++), and side "History Notes" represent some of the "fun" readings the author has added to this book. Each chapter ends with a brief but concise summary followed by problem sets that assess the important topics covered in the chapter. Even though this book is targeted for a junior-level programming course, some of the topics are well worth the reading for an advanced programmer or a graduate student. The author starts by giving the reasons behind why such topic needs to be studied:· To increase capacity to express ideas - the depth at which we can program, just like the way we think, is highly influenced by the expressive power of the language in which we communicate our thoughts.· Improved background for choosing appropriate language - if you know more about programming languages, you have a better idea what to choose when development time comes.· Increased Ability to learn new languages - continuous learning in the field of software engineering is very much essential. If one knows the concepts of one programming language, applying those concepts to other language to learn or understand become much simpler and easier. · Better understanding of the significance of implementation - Someone who knows the implementation details of that language can only fix some programming bugs. · Overall advancement of computing - For better decisions to be made going forward with computing and software development, one needs to learn from some of the mistakes that gotten us where we are. Things to do or not to do in this relatively new science. The author starts by giving a very descriptive background on programming languages, starting from Zuse's Plankalkul, the first programming language. Zuse's defined the Plankalkul and wrote many algorithms in the language for a variety of problems. Even thought it was never implemented, Plankalkul paved the way for other programming languages that would follow it. Fortran, LISP, ALGOL 60, COBOL, BASIC and other high-level programming languages would follow over the years and evolve. The author gives the history behind each language, and goes in to a detail description of how each language evolved over the years. Even though chapter

One of the best books of Programming Languages

This is one of best books of Programming Languages I know. I use it as basic bibliography to teach Programming Languages in a College in Brazil. This book must be compared with the books of Terrence Pratt, Guezzi and Watt among others. This book do not intend to be a book to teach any language like C or Java. This books is a book to explain issues about the design of languages. (Sorry for my english mistakes)

Puts the many programming languages into perspective

I have studied many different programming languages with their different features and approaches, but reading this book helped to give me a much better perspective on why different languages do things the way they do. It does a great job of examining the advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches various languages take. The author has an incredible amount of knowledge of many different languages which enables him to offer a unique perspective on the subject. The book has a good balance between showing how things are done in newer languages like Java and C++ as well as older languages like Fortran and PL1. Not only does the author tell you what is different, he explains the reasons for the differences.I would say that sometimes the coverage may be too detailed for the average reader. For example, many pages are spent describing loops, but this is something that is very similar in all languages so it should have been covered only very briefly. I particularly enjoyed the the chapter on the history of programming languages, which explained the origin of all major languages (and several minor ones) including why they were invented and what impact they have had on computer science.