Having now read both Programming Language Pragmatics, Third Edition and Concepts of Programming Languages (11th Edition), I have settled on the former as my textbook for the fall. I do not find either book ideally suited, and I wish that the Fourth Edition was being released this summer and not in November, which is why it still hasn't arrived.
For the choice of which textbook to use, it was "Concepts" to lose and having 11 editions, the text should also be better revised. I dislike reading the examples in a book and questioning how the code would compile. Beyond which, the examples felt quaint and contrived.
(edit) For example, I was reviewing the material on F# and copied in an example from the text:
let rec factorial x =
if x <= 1 then 1
else n * factorial(n-1)
Does anyone else notice that the function parameter is x on the first two lines and n on the last?!
Before the Concepts book is written off entirely, there are many valuable aspects. I enjoyed reading about the history of programming languages, especially for exposing me to Plankalkül. The work also took a valuable track in the subject by regularly looking at the trade-offs between different designs and features. This point certainly helped inform my teaching of the material.
Fundamentally, when I looked at the price of the two textbooks, the benefits of using the newer Concepts textbook could not outweigh the nearly doubled pricetag. Most of the positive points are small things and can be covered as addendums to the material.
(FCC note - Concepts of Programming Languages was provided free to me by the publisher.)
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