🧵 How long does it take you to read a handbook?

Anonymous at Thu, 9 May 2024 10:53:00 UTC No. 16167107

I am an about-to-graduate cs student. I feel really interested into programming language theory related stuff like compilers construction, type theory or formal semantics but the more I get into it the more I realize the lack of prerequisites from my classical cs curriculum in mathematical logic.

while I have already cover some materials like the 2005's Type summer school or experiencing type systems properties proofs using Coq, I am actually seeking for some classics in those domain to get myself confortable with my academic aspirations. Luckily, the domain doesn't looks that wide since some books clearly emerge as must-have lectures. And thanks to Zlibrary I am planning for this summer to go throught Girard's Proof and types, Thompson's type theory and functionnal programming, sethi and ullman's compiler dragon book plus intro to automata theory and for further times readings Winskel's Formal semantics of programming languages etc.

But while these books always almost starts with the basic introduction to first order logic, natural deduction and lambda calculus, they sometimes mainly discuss some concepts that are beyond my undergraduate knowledge like domain and model theory or denotationnal semantic. My goal is to fill once and for all those prerequisites with pic related handbooks (especially the first and the third one) that are written and reviewed by the greatest like Barendregt, Milner or Hindley.
They review Recursion theory, Universal algebra, category theory, model theory, term rewriting systems, modal and temporal logic, domain theory, denotational or algebraic semantics, etc.

My question is how many time can i expect to cover the core concepts if not just the minimal required from these rawly 2000 pages? Is it worth it or should I focus directly on the previous book i cited with their light introduction to those fields before treating them, or just on the effective graduate courses hopping to be further introduced to those fields?