15-212: Principles of Programming

We introduce declarations which evaluate to environments. An environment collects a set of bindings of variables to values which can be used in subsequent declarations or expressions. We also discuss the rules of scope which explain how references to identifiers are resolved. This is somewhat tricky for recursive function declarations.

Key Concepts

• declaration
• environment
• recursive declaration
• scope
• signature
• structure

Sample Code

On-line Notes by Robert Harper

• Variables and Declarations
• Functions
• Products and Patterns

Suggested Reading in Programming in Standard ML:

• Chapter 3: Declarations
• Chapter 4: Functions
• Chapter 5: Products and Records

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Michael Erdmann