Nominal sets provide a promising new mathematical analysis of names in formal languages based upon symmetry, with many applications to the syntax and semantics of programming language constructs that involve binding, or localising names. Part I provides an introduction to the basic theory of nominal sets. In Part II, the author surveys some of the applications that have developed in programming language semantics (both operational and denotational), functional programming and logic programming. As the first book to give a detailed account of the theory of nominal sets, it will be welcomed by researchers and graduate students in theoretical computer science.

The aim of this volume is to present developments in semantics and logics of computation in a way that is accessible to graduate students. The book is based on a summer school at the Isaac Newton Institute and consists of a sequence of linked lecture courses by international authorities in the area. The whole set has been edited to form a coherent introduction to these topics, most of which have not been presented pedagogically before.

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 1998 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 labelling 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 aim of this volume is to present modern developments in semantics and logics of computation in a way that is accessible to graduate students. The book is based on a summer school at the Isaac Newton Institute and consists of a sequence of linked lecture courses by international authorities in the area. The whole set have been edited to form a coherent introduction to these topics, most of which have not been presented pedagogically before.