In the mean time I discovered that there is actually a third edition of MacLennan's book: Principles of Programming Languages: Design, Evaluation, and Implementation

Bruce J. MacLennan

Date: March 25, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0195113063 | ISBN-13: 978-0195113068 | Edition: 3

Maybe I should consider using that one after all.

Thanks for the link to the poster on the history and evolution of programming languages Joachim. I had seen it before, but didn't have the PDF of the poster. Good to see it again.

Dear Kim Mens, Check the book mentioned for your usefulness.

Michael L. Scott. Programming Language Pragmatics, 3rd edition

While dated (published in 1983), from Computer Science Press (I just found my copy) Ellis Horowitz's "Fundamentals of Programming Languages" seems to fit your requirements.

try "Principles of Programming Languages by Robert Sebesta, 10th Edition"

If you are interested in the history (this book assumes you already know the principles):

Thomas J. Bergin and Richard G. Gibson (eds.): History of Programming Languages, Addison Wesley, 1996.

Thanks Pierre-Yves for the hint. Since it's a second master level seminar course, a book that focusses mostly on the history and less on the principles (they should know the principles by then, I hope) could be helpful as well. I'll check if we have it in our library. What topics / languages does it cover?

Yes Marriette, Sebesta's book is certainly an option as well. I have a copy of the seventh edition of his book "(concepts of) Programming Languages" on my desk here. Are you sure you got the title right (you mentioned "principles of")? Or perhaps he changed the title in the mean time as the version you suggest is more recent. (On the downside, I don't like too much those books that have a new edition every two or three years or so just for the sake of having more sales. My copy dates from 2006 and in the mean time he's already at edition 10, if I may believe you. Sigh.)

Regarding the third edition of Bruce J. MacLennan’s book on Principles of Programming Languages, it is no longer in print. I may get my hands on a second-hand copy of it via Amazon or something, but it will be difficult to use it as a course reference if it is no longer in print. A pity.

Jerrold, I'll try to get access to a copy of the book you suggested. Could you tell me in a nutshell what exact topics are covered in that book and why exactly you would recommend it? (What did you like most about it?)

Kim, there is a companion book - "Programming Languages, A Grand Tour" . last revised in 1987. While it might seem old, note that it's still a reference for current graduate level course work - http://research.cs.queensu.ca/~cordy/cisc860/

There are quite a few ebook versions of my first recommendation, all free for download, one site is - http://www.gobookee.org/fundamentals-of-programming-languages-ellis-horowitz/

As to why I recommend the book, it gives a understanding of the how and why of language features and how those have changed from a historical perspective. It also helped me defend my suggested changes 10yrs later as I was part of a language design team.

Another vote for Michael L. Scott. Programming Language Pragmatics

Kim - the titles of the chapters are:

1) The Evolution of Programming Languages

2) The Challenge of Programming Language Design

3) Defining Syntax

4) Variables, Expressions and Statements

5) Types

6) Scope and Extent

7) Procedures

8) Data Abstraction

9) Exception Handling

10) Concurrency

11) Input/Output

12) Functional Programming

13) Data Flow Programming Languages

14) Object Oriented Programming Languages

Again note that the book hasn't been updated since the mid-1980s, so references to interpreted languages (Perl, Python, etc) and byte-encoded languages (Java), and the web world won't be found.

Dear Professor Kim Mens, I will not recommend you for the books of eds 1983, 1996.

I agreed with Marriette Katarahweire · Makerere University

"Principles of Programming Languages by Robert Sebesta, 10th Edition" is good book