A FORMAL SYSTEM FOR DEFINING THE SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF COMPUTER LANGUAGES.

Abstract

The thesis of this dissertation is that formal definitions of the syntax and semantics of computer languages are needed. This dissertation investigates two candidates for formally defining computer languages: (1) the formalism of canonical systems for defining the syntax of a computer language and its translation into a target language, and (2) the formalisms of the lambda-calculus and extended Markov algorithms as a combined formalism used as the basis of a target language for defining the semantics of a computer language. Formal definitions of the syntax and semantics of SNOBOL/1 and ALGOL/60 are included as examples of the approach. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1969
Accession Number
AD0689305

Entities

People

  • Henry F. Ledgard

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Calculus
  • Computer Languages
  • Computers
  • Language
  • Linguistics
  • Semantics
  • Theses
  • Translations

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Computational Linguistics