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New book: Higher Order Operational Techniques in Semantics
> The following book should now be available in good bookshops everywhere!
> -Andy and Andy.
>
> Higher Order Operational Techniques in Semantics
> Edited by Andrew D. Gordon and Andrew M. Pitts
> Publications of the Newton Institute,
> Cambridge University Press,
> 390+viii pages. ISBN 0 521 63168 8.
> http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/ap/hoots/
>
> Most object-oriented or functional languages are higher order languages,
> i.e., ones in which the means of manipulation, e.g., object or function,
> can itself be manipulated. This book contains a collection of original
> articles about recent developments in operational semantics for higher
> order programming languages by some of the leading researchers in the
> field. Operational techniques are important because they are closer to
> implementations and language definitions than more abstract mathematical
> techniques such as denotational semantics. One of the exciting
> developments reflected by the book is that mathematical structures and
> techniques used in denotational semantics (such as fixpoint induction) may
> be recovered from a purely operational starting point. The book surveys
> and introduces techniques such as contextual equivalence, applicative
> bisimulation, logical relations, improvement relations, explicit models of
> memory management, and labeling techniques for confluence properties. It
> treats a variety of higher order languages, based on functions, processes
> and objects, with and without side effects, typed and untyped.
>
> The idea for the book arose at the workshop on Higher Order Operational
> Techniques in Semantics (HOOTS) that took place in October 1995. The
> workshop was organised by the editors of this volume as part of a
> six-month programme on Semantics of Computation at the Isaac Newton
> Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Cambridge UK, with financial
> assistance from the EPSRC and Harlequin Ltd.
>
> * Introduction, pp1-8
> * Operational equivalences for untyped and polymorphic object calculi
> A. D. Gordon, pp9-54
> * Semantics for core Concurrent ML using computation types
> A. Jeffrey, pp55-89
> * Relational reasoning about contexts
> S. B. Lassen, pp91-135
> * Labeling techniques and typed fixed-point operators
> J. C. Mitchell, M. Hoang and B. T. Howard, pp137-174
> * Semantics of memory management for polymorphic languages
> G. Morrisett and R. Harper, pp175-226
> * Operational reasoning for functions with local state
> A. M. Pitts and I. D. B. Stark, pp227-273
> * Improvement theory and its applications
> D. Sands, pp275-306
> * The coverage of operational semantics
> S. F. Smith, pp307-346
> * Reasoning about functions with effects
> C. Talcott, pp347-390