North American Jumelage 'Type Systems'
Abstract
The methods of classical denotational semantics provide a number of valuable tools to designers of sequential Algol-like programming languages. In particular, Algol-like languages can be described by recursive domain equations and semantic clauses. It is rather difficult to solve such equations from first principles. Fortunately for language designers, the metatheory of denotational semantics shows that every set of recursive domain equations has a solution. Indeed, the metatheory is so powerful that programming language designers can use the theory naively and be guaranteed that no foundational problems will arise. However, the theory that has been so successful for Algol-like languages is less appropriate for concurrency. The approach to language definition that seems most effective so far is structural operational semantics (SOS). To date, most uses of SOS for language definitions have been ad-hoc. We sketch the outlines of a metatheory of SOSses as used to define concurrent languages, and in particular the discipline of process algebras.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 20, 1993
- Accession Number
- ADA275342
Entities
People
- Andre Scedrov
Organizations
- University of Pennsylvania