ALGOL 68 as a metalanguage for denotational semantics

Pagan, Frank G.

doi:10.1093/comjnl/22.1.63

Cited by 15 publications

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“…col means col of s). (6) T h e operators ' = ' and # ' are completely generic (like assignment) and need not to be explicitly declared for new modes. If the metalanguage for writing the formal specifications of a programming language is itself a programming language of sufficient clarity, conciseness and expressive power, then the specifications can be more understandable to more people and more readily amenable to machine checking and processing.…”

Section: Struct [Color Cot] S := [Blue]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward complete programming language descriptions that are both formal and understandable

Pagan

1984

Softw Pract Exp

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We describe an approach to, and a case study of, the construction of complete programming language descriptions that are at the same time formal and readily understandable. Such a description includes integrated specifications for abstract and textual syntax, context conditions (static semantics) and dynamic semantics. The imetalanguage is a powerful program design language based on a real general‐purpose programming language. The specifications are presented not as a monolithic block but as an intellectually manageable sequence of sections and subsections with a carefully designed format and cross‐referencing scheme. The approach could reduce the need to choose between formality and understandability in a language reference manual.

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Section: Struct [Color Cot] S := [Blue]mentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward complete programming language descriptions that are both formal and understandable

Pagan

1984

Softw Pract Exp

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“…It seems that functional programming languages are more suitable, as suggested in [20] where ML is used as a meta-language for denotational descriptions. Imperative programming languages have also been suggested, such as ALGOL 68 [12] and Pascal [1], with considerably less success. In the first case, an extension to the language was suggested by the author and in the second it was clear that similar extensions would be extremely valuable.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A framework for programming denotational semantics in C++

Papaspyrou

1996

SIGPLAN Not.

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In this paper, we describe how the denotational semantics of programming languages can be implemented in C++, by exploiting the object-oriented programrning paradigm. Such implementations are execution models, extremely useful for the study of programrning languages. Although C++ is not a natural choice for this problem domain, compared to functional programming languages such as ML, we suggest a typesafe framework, implemented in pure C++, that integrates functional characteristics such as high-order functions and is capable of naturally expressing denotational descriptions. Finally, by comparing our approach to possible implementations using functional languages, we investigate extensions to C++ that would be valuable in this problem domain.

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“…Various approaches to semantic prototyping have been tried, usually based on expressing denotational or natural-semantic specifications in a programming language such as Algol 68 (Pagan 1979), ML (Watt 1986), or Prolog (Despeyroux 1988). I have explored the possibility of prototyping action semantics using ML ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Action semantics

Mosses

1993

Choice Reviews Online

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A distinguishing characteristic of action semantics is its facet system, which defines the variety of information flows in a language definition. The facet system can be analyzed to validate the well-formedness of a language definition, to infer the typings of its inputs and outputs, and to calculate the operational semantics of programs. We present a single framework for doing all of the above. The framework exploits the internal subsorting structure of the facets so that sort checking, static analysis, and operational semantics are related, sound instances of the same underlying analysis. The framework also suggests that action semantics's extensibility can be understood as a kind of "weakening rule" in a "logic" of actions. In this paper, the framework is used to perform type inference on specific programs, to justify meaning-preserving code transformations, and to "stage" an action semantics definition of a programming language into a static semantics stage and a dynamic semantics stage. *Fukushima 965-80, Japan, kg-doh&-aizu.ac.jp anh hat tan, Kansas 66506, U.S.A.,

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ALGOL 68 as a metalanguage for denotational semantics

Cited by 15 publications

References 0 publications

Toward complete programming language descriptions that are both formal and understandable

Toward complete programming language descriptions that are both formal and understandable

A framework for programming denotational semantics in C++

Action semantics

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