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Advanced distributed systems ; 5th International School and Symposium, ISSADS 2005, Guadalajara, Mexico, January 24-28, 2005, Revised Selected Papers
Poses the papers accepted and presented at the 5th Int- national School and Symposium on Advanced Distributed Systems (ISSADS) in this LNCS volume. The papers presented in the sessions of the symposium cover the subjects of distributed systems from the system level and applications, but also contributions from the area of theory and artificial intelligence concepts.
Abstract Computing Machines : A Lambda Calculus Perspective
The book addresses ways and means of organizing computations, highlighting the relationship between algorithms and the basic mechanisms and runtime structures necessary to execute them using machines. It completely abstracts from concrete programming languages and machine architectures, taking instead the lambda calculus as the basic programming and program execution model to design various abstract machines for its correct implementation. The emphasis is on fully normalizing machines based on full-fledged beta-reductions as essential prerequisites for symbolic computations that treat functions and variables truly as first-class objects. Their weakly normalizing counterparts are shown to be functional abstract machines that sacrifice the flavors of full beta-reductions for decidedly simpler runtime structures and improved runtime efficiency. Further downgrading of the lambda calculus leads to classical imperative machines that permit side-effecting operations on the runtime environment.
