1.1 Text Objectives

The objectives of this text are to:

• Establish an understanding of fundamental and universal language concepts and design/implementation options for them.

• Improve readers’ ability to understand new programming languages and enhance their background for selecting appropriate languages.

• Expose readers to alternative styles of programming and exotic ways of performing computation so to establish an increased capacity for describing computation in a program, a richer toolbox of techniques from which to solve problems, and a more holistic picture of computing.

Since language concepts are the building blocks from which all languages are constructed and organized, an understanding of the concepts implies that, given a (new) language, one can:

• Deconstruct it into its essential concepts and determine the implementation options for these concepts.

• Focus on the big picture (i.e., core concepts/features and options) and not language nuisances or minutia (e.g., syntax).

• Discern in which contexts (e.g., application domains) it is an appropriate or ideal language of choice.

• In turn, learn to use, assimilate, and harness the strengths of the language more quickly.