Understanding Computation (61 page)

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Authors: Tom Stuart

Tags: #COMPUTERS / Programming / General

BOOK: Understanding Computation
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V
values
about,
Values
,
Small-Step Semantics
absolute,
Abstraction: Multiplying Signs
assigning to local variables,
Local Variables and Assignment
basic data,
Basic Data
comma-separated,
Data Structures
data structures,
Data Structures
objects and,
Objects and Methods
procs,
Procs
range of,
Data Structures
variables
constants as,
Defining Constants
local,
Local Variables and Assignment
parallel assignment,
Local Variables and Assignment
replacing in expressions,
Replacing variables

Replacing variables
variadic methods,
Variadic Methods
virtual machines,
Expressions
W
W3C,
Applications
Wadler, Philip,
Applications
while expression,
Control Flow
Wolfram, Stephen,
Rule 110

Wolfram’s 2,3 Turing Machine
,
Depressing Implications
Wolfram’s 2,3 Turing machine,
Wolfram’s 2,3 Turing Machine
X
XML documents,
Code Is Data
XQuery specification,
Applications
XSLT document-transformation language,
Applications
,
Code Is Data
Y
Y combinator,
Numeric Operations
yield keyword,
Blocks
Z
Z combinator,
Numeric Operations
About the Author

Tom is a computer scientist and programmer, and the founder of Codon, a digital product consultancy in London. He works as a consultant, mentor and trainer, helping companies to improve the quality and clarity of their approach to creating software products, usually on the web. He has lectured on optimizing compilers at the University of Cambridge, co-organizes the Ruby Manor conference, and is a member of the London Ruby User Group.

Colophon

The animal on the cover of
Understanding Computation
is the bear paw
clam (
Hippopus hippopus
). The bear paw clam, also known as the horse’s hoof
clam because of its shape and the strawberry clam for its reddish color, is part of the giant
clam subfamily Tridacnidae, which in turn is part of the family Cardiidae. The bear paw clam
mostly lives in reefs in the Indo-Pacific area.

The bear paw clam has two identical and symmetrical hinged sections. It also has deep ridges
and a distinctive red-white color pattern. It feeds on plankton in the surrounding area by
staying in one location and filtering surrounding water using its siphons.

The cover image is from a loose plate, source unknown. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond.
The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font
is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.

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Understanding Computation
Tom Stuart
Editor
Mike Loukides
Editor
Rachel Roumeliotis
Revision History
2013-05-10
First release
2013-05-31
Second release

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