Comparative Metric Semantics of Programming Languages: Nondeterminism and Recursion

di Franck van Breughel (Autore)

Birkhauser Boston Inc, 1997

During the last three decades several different styles of semantics for program­ ming languages have been developed. This book compares two of them: the operational and the denotational approach. On the basis of several exam­ ples we show how to define operational and denotational semantic models for programming languages. Furthermore, we introduce a general technique for comparing various semantic models for a given language. We focus on different degrees of nondeterminism in programming lan­ guages. Nondeterminism arises naturally in concurrent languages. It is also an important concept in specification languages. In the examples discussed, the degree of non determinism ranges from a choice between two alternatives to a choice between a collection of alternatives indexed by a closed interval of the real numbers. The former arises in a language with nondeterministic choices. A real time language with dense choices gives rise to the latter. We also consider the nondeterministic random assignment and parallel composition, both couched in a simple language. Besides non determinism our four example languages contain some form of recursion, a key ingredient of programming languages.

• Autore: Franck van Breughel
• Editore: Birkhauser Boston Inc
• Collana: Progress in Theoretical Computer Science
• Anno: 1997
• Rilegatura: Hardback
• Pagine: 220 p.
• Dimensioni: 234 x 156 mm
• EAN: 9780817639273

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