week's homework, for instance, before the session.
-->
-* Here is information about [[How to get the programming languages running on your computer|installing]].
+* Here is information about [[How to get the programming languages running on your computer|installing]]. If those instructions seem overwhelming, note that it should be possible to do a lot of this course using only demonstration versions of these languages [[that run in your web browser|browser]].
* Henceforth, unless we say otherwise, every homework will be "due" by
Wednesday morning after the Thursday seminar in which we refer to it.
of the extent to which they emphasize, and are designed around those idioms. Languages like Python and JavaScript are sometimes themselves
described as "more functional" than other languages, like C.
-In any case, here is some more context for the three languages we will be focusing on.
+In any case, here is
+<a name=installing></a>
+[[How to get the programming languages running on your computer|installing]].
+And here is some more context for the three languages we will be focusing on:
* **Scheme** is one of two or three major dialects of *Lisp*, which is a large family
of programming languages. Scheme
[Lisp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisp_%28programming_language%29),
[Scheme](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_%28programming_language%29),
[Racket](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket_%28programming_language%29), and
-and [Chicken](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHICKEN_%28Scheme_implementation%29).)
+[Chicken](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHICKEN_%28Scheme_implementation%29).)
+ <!-- Help on Learning Scheme -->
* **Caml** is one of two major dialects of *ML*, which is another large
family of programming languages. Caml has only one active "implementation",
(Wikipedia on
[ML](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ML_%28programming_language%29),
-[Caml](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caml),
-and [OCaml](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCaml).)
+[Caml](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caml), and
+[OCaml](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCaml).)
+ <!-- Help on Learning OCaml -->
-* Those of you with some programming background may have encountered a third
-prominent functional programming language, **Haskell**. This is also used a
+* **Haskell** is also used a
lot in the academic contexts we'll be working through. Its surface syntax
differs from Caml, and there are various important things one can do in
each of Haskell and Caml that one can't (or can't as easily) do in the
(Wikipedia on
[Haskell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskell_%28programming_language%29) and
[GHC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Haskell_Compiler).)
+ <!-- Help on Learning Haskell -->
-<a name=installing></a>
-[[How to get the programming languages running on your computer|installing]]
## Recommended Books ##
working through this book instead of The Little Schemer. For the rest of you,
or those of you who *want* practice with Scheme, go with The Little Schemer.
+* *The Haskell Road to Logic, Math and Programming*, by Kees Doets and Jan van Eijck, currently $22 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0954300696) is a textbook teaching the parts of math and logic we cover in the first few weeks of Logic for Philosophers. (Notions like validity, proof theory for predicate logic, sets, sequences, relations, functions, inductive proofs and recursive definitions, and so on.) The math here should be accessible and familiar to all of you. What is novel about this book is that it integrates the exposition of these notions with a training in (part of) Haskell. It only covers the rudiments of Haskell's type system, and doesn't cover monads; but if you wanted to review this material and become comfortable with core pieces of Haskell in the process, this could be a good read.
+(The book also seems to be available online [here](http://fldit-www.cs.uni-dortmund.de/~peter/PS07/HR.pdf).)
+
+
+The rest of these are a bit more advanced, and are also looser suggestions:
+
+* *Computational Semantics with Functional Programming*, by Jan van Eijck and Christina Unger, currently $42 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521757606). We own this but haven't read it yet. It *looks* like it's doing the same kind of thing this seminar aims to do: exploring how natural language meanings can be understood to be "computed". The text uses Haskell, and is aimed at linguists and philosophers as well as computer scientists. Definitely worth a look.
+<!--
+It deals with both denotational meaning (where meaning
+comes from knowing the conditions of truth in situations), and
+operational meaning (where meaning is an instruction for performing
+cognitive action).
+-->
+
* Another good book covering the same ground as the Hankin book, but
more thoroughly, and in a more mathematical style, is *Lambda-Calculus and Combinators:
an Introduction*, by J. Roger Hindley and Jonathan P. Seldin, currently $74 hardback / $65 kindle on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521898854).
terminological/notational choices. At first, this makes comprehension slightly slower,
but in the long run it's helpful because it makes the arbitrariness of those choices more salient.
-* Another good book, covering some of the same ground as the Hankin, and the Hindley & Seldin, but delving deeper into typed lambda calculi, is *Types and Programming Languages*, by Benjamin Pierce, currently $77 hardback / $68 kindle on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262162091). This book has many examples in OCaml.
+
+* Another good book, covering a bit of the same ground as the Hankin and the Hindley & Seldin, but focusing especially on typed lambda calculi, is *Types and Programming Languages*, by Benjamin Pierce, currently $77 hardback / $68 kindle on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262162091). This book has many examples in OCaml. It seems to be the standard textbook for CS students learning type theory.
+
+* The next two books focus on the formal semantics of typed programming languages, both in the "denotational" form that most closely corresponds to what we mean by semantics, and in the "operational" form very often used in CS. These are: *The Formal Semantics of Programming Languages*, by Glynn Winskel, currently $38 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262731037), and *Semantics of Programming Languages*, by Carl Gunter, currently $41 on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0262071436).
----