Laboratory activities for studying the formal semantics of programming languages

1991 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry L. Kurtz
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Semantics Of Programming Languages ◽  
Laboratory Activities

Deductive Semantics of RTPA

2009 ◽  
pp. 2915-2942
Author(s):  
Yingxu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
Software Comprehension ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Semantic Function ◽  
Semantics Of Programming Languages ◽  
Finite Set

Deductive semantics is a novel software semantic theory that deduces the semantics of a program in a given programming language from a unique abstract semantic function to the concrete semantics embodied by the changes of status of a finite set of variables constituting the semantic environment of the program. There is a lack of a generic semantic function and its unified mathematical model in conventional semantics, which may be used to explain a comprehensive set of programming statements and computing behaviors. This article presents a complete paradigm of formal semantics that explains how deductive semantics is applied to specify the semantics of real-time process algebra (RTPA) and how RTPA challenges conventional formal semantic theories. Deductive semantics can be applied to define abstract and concrete semantics of programming languages, formal notation systems, and large-scale software systems, to facilitate software comprehension and recognition, to support tool development, to enable semantics-based software testing and verification, and to explore the semantic complexity of software systems. Deductive semantics may greatly simplify the description and analysis of the semantics of complicated software systems specified in formal notations and implemented in programming languages.

scholarly journals Comparative Semantics of Programming Languages

1984 ◽  
Vol 13 (173) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian H. Mayoh
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Formal Definition ◽  
Specification Languages ◽  
Semantics Of Programming Languages ◽  
Definition Of

<p>The flood of new programming and specification languages shows no sign of abating, but very few of these languages have a formal definition. The advantages of knowing precisely what is specified in a specification and exactly how a program can behave are obvious, but none of the existing formal definition methods are completely satisfactory.</p><p>Theoreticians have not been idle, but they have concentrated on problems that are not immediately relevant to language designers (algebraic and categoric structuring of definitions, refined notions of concurrency and the like).</p><p>In the belief that the answer to some of the language designers' problems is ''use different formalisms to define fragments of the languages precisely'', we advocate the study of comparative semantics. This paper is a contribution to this study, prompted by the fact that the parallel aspects of ADA seem to require a quite different kind of formal semantics from that used for sequential ADA in ''Formal Definition of ADA'', CII Honeywell Bull, 1981, Paris.</p>

Deductive Semantics of RTPA

2011 ◽  
pp. 254-291
Author(s):  
Yingxu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Semantic Theory ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
Software Comprehension ◽  
Support Tool ◽  
Semantic Function ◽  
Semantics Of Programming Languages ◽  
Finite Set

Deductive semantics is a novel software semantic theory that deduces the semantics of a program in a given programming language from a unique abstract semantic function to the concrete semantics embodied by the changes of status of a finite set of variables constituting the semantic environment of the program. There is a lack of a generic semantic function and its unified mathematical model in conventional semantics, which may be used to explain a comprehensive set of programming statements and computing behaviors. This article presents a complete paradigm of formal semantics that explains how deductive semantics is applied to specify the semantics of real-time process algebra (RTPA) and how RTPA challenges conventional formal semantic theories. Deductive semantics can be applied to define abstract and concrete semantics of programming languages, formal notation systems, and large-scale software systems, to facilitate software comprehension and recognition, to support tool development, to enable semantics-based software testing and verification, and to explore the semantic complexity of software systems. Deductive semantics may greatly simplify the description and analysis of the semantics of complicated software systems specified in formal notations and implemented in programming languages.

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