User:EngineerScotty/Programming Language Theory

Welcome!

This is the proposed project page for the proposed programming language theory (PLT) WikiProject.

Introduction
While Wikipedia has a lot of articles on programming languages and aspects of programming language theory, there is a bit of information on the discipline which is poorly-organized and/or not very accurate. Hence this project.

The charter proposal, as copied from Wikiproject/List of proposed projects, with section headers interspersed.

Purpose
Description: Organizes and edits articles on the theory of programming languages, as well as technical issues related to their design and construction. Examples of likely topics would include:


 * Formal models and calculii (the Lambda Calculus, the process calculii, etc).
 * Compiler construction (parsing, lexing, semantic analysis, code generation, etc).
 * Type theory and type systems
 * Possibly, discussion of research programming languages
 * Related areas in mathematics, i.e. computability theory
 * Runtime design and implementation--topics such as garbage collection, virtual machines (in the context of programming languages), linkers and program loaders, etc.
 * Programming paradigms.
 * Other topics which are covered by the charter but which I haven't thought about.

Not the purpose
There currently exists a WikiProject Programming languages which is flagged as inactive, this existing project seems to focus on the following practical subjects:


 * Cataloguing articles about programming languages themselves, and about popular implementations thereof
 * Detailed topics on specific programming languages

In addition, many of the topics listed in the charter already have excellent articles on Wikipedia; this project wouldn't attempt any "hostile takeovers" on such (other than providing navboxes and the like).

More to come later... I'll flesh out the project template. --EngineerScotty 00:22, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Principles
Obviously, the main principles of Wikipedia are important, and apply to this (and every) WikiProject. Of particular importance is No Original Research; PLT is a rapidly moving, leading-edge field. Participants must be careful to ensure that Wikipedia only reflects results which are published and well-known (among PLT researchers). Wikipedia is not the place for new theories, speculation and conjecture, and other original research. (Well-established conjecture such as the Church-Turing Thesis is naturally welcome; provided it is so identified).

Nor is Wikipedia the place for "vanity" publishing or promotion of ideas. Commercial advertising, SPAM, and such are obviously prohibited.

Beyond that, have fun!

List of Members
People who are interested, just put your name at the end of the list. (Or, if you are a Lisp programmer, at the beginning).


 * EngineerScotty 04:19, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Ongoing issues/to-do list
Right now, this proposal is only a couple hours old (as I write this, not necessarily as you read this); the main concern is gauging interest among the Wikipedia community. One article which I will soon go write is programming language theory; I'm surprised that Wikipedia doesn't (as of Jan 28 2006) have an article on our favorite topic.

If there's interest (at least 5-10 volunteers), then we can become an official project, and get to the business of editing articles.

Comments
Please add comments here, or on the talk page.