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15312 Foundations Of Programming Languages Updated May 2026

The famous slogan "Well-typed programs do not go wrong."

Writing code that works across multiple types (generics). 3. Dynamics: Execution Models 15312 foundations of programming languages

The climax of the course is proving . Together, these two properties guarantee that if a program passes the type checker, it will either finish with a result or keep making progress—it will never crash or enter an undefined state. Why Study It? The famous slogan "Well-typed programs do not go wrong

The "Dynamics" describe how a program steps from one state to the next. Using , you write rules that dictate exactly how an expression evaluates. This is where you learn about: Together, these two properties guarantee that if a

The course focuses on the study of programming language phenomena using the tools of and Operational Semantics . Instead of looking at languages like Java or Python as monolithic tools, you learn to see them as a collection of "features" (functions, recursion, exceptions, parallelism) that can be formally defined and proven correct. The Pillars of the Course 1. Abstract Syntax

The formal logic behind garbage collection and resource allocation. 4. The Safety Theorem

When exactly does an argument get computed?