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Preface
ChangestotheSeventhEdition
Thegoals,overallstructure,andapproachofthisseventheditionofConceptsofProgrammingLanguages
remainthesameasthoseofthe
six
earliereditions.Theprincipalgoalsaretointroducethemainconstructs
ofcontemporaryprogramminglanguagesandtoprovidethereaderwiththetoolsnecessaryforthecritical
evaluationofexistingandfutureprogramminglanguages.Anadditionalgoalistopreparethereaderforthe
studyofcompilerdesign,byprovidinganin-depthdiscussionofprogramminglanguagestructures,
presentingaformalmethodofdescribingsyntax,andintroducingapproachestolexicalandsyntatic
analysis.
Theseventheditionevolvedfromthesixththroughseveralkindsofchanges.Tomaintainthe
currencyofthematerial,someofthediscussionofolderprogramminglanguageshasbeenreplacedby
materialonnewerlanguages.Forexample,sectionswereaddedtobothChapters
1
and
2
thatdiscuss
markup/programminghybridlanguages,usingXSLTandJSPasexamples.Asectiononprogramproofs
usingaxiomaticsemanticswasadded,includinganewproof.Thesectiononrecursivedescentparsingin
Chapter
4
wasstrengthenedbyaddinganewparsingroutineandincludingatraceofacompleteparse
usingtherecursivedescentalgorithm.Materialhasbeenaddedinseveralplacestointroducethemost
interestingfeaturesofJava5.0,includingitsnewiterativestatementitsenumerationclass,anditsgenerics.
Finally,minorchanges,primarilytoimproveclarity,weremadetoalargenumberofsectionsofthebook.
TheVision
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