Comparative Metric Semantics of Programming Languages: Nondeterminism and Recursion

ISBN-13: 9781461286806 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 220 str.

Franck Van Breughel

Opis

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."

Spis treści

Nondeterminism and recursion.- Operational semantics.- Denotational semantics.- Metric spaces.- Comparative semantics.- Bibliographic notes.- I.- 1 Domain equations.- 1.1 Building domain equations.- 1.2 Solving domain equations.- 1.3 Bibliographic notes.- 2 Linear and branching domains.- 2.1 Two linear domains.- 2.2 Comparison of the linear domains.- 2.3 Three branching domains.- 2.4 Comparison of the branching domains.- 2.5 Relating linear and branching domains.- 2.6 Bibliographic notes.- II.- 3 Operational semantics.- 3.1 Labelled transition systems.- 3.2 Operational semantics.- 3.3 Linear semantics transformations.- 3.3.1 Compactness preserving.- 3.3.2 Closedness preserving.- 3.4 Branching semantics transformations.- 3.4.1 Compactness preserving.- 3.4.2 Closedness preserving.- 3.5 Relating semantics transformations.- 3.6 Bibliographic notes.- 4 Nondeterministic choice.- 4.1 Language definition.- 4.2 Operational semantics.- 4.3 Denotational semantics.- 4.4 Relating O and D.- 4.5 Bibliographic notes.- 5 Random assignment.- 5.1 Language definition.- 5.2 Operational semantics.- 5.3 Denotational semantics.- 5.4 Relating O and D.- 5.5 Bibliographic notes.- III.- 6 Generalized finiteness conditions.- 6.1 Metric labelled transition systems.- 6.2 Operational semantics.- 6.3 Linear semantics transformations.- 6.3.1 Compactness and nonexpansiveness preserving.- 6.3.2 Closedness and nonexpansiveness preserving.- 6.4 Branching semantics transformations.- 6.5 Relating semantics transformations.- 6.6 Bibliographic notes.- 7 Dense choice.- 7.1 Language definition.- 7.2 Operational semantics.- 7.3 Denotational semantics.- 7.4 Relating O and D.- 7.5 Bibliographic notes.- 8 Second order communication.- 8.1 Language definition.- 8.2 Operational semantics.- 8.3 Denotational semantics.- 8.4 Relating O and D.- 8.4.1 Intermediate semantics.- 8.4.2 Relating I and D.- 8.4.3 Relating O and I.- 8.5 Bibliographic notes.- A Metric spaces.- A.1 Metrics.- A.2 Completeness and contractiveness.- A.3 Hyperspaces.- A.4 Nonexpansive functions.- A.5 Bibliographic notes.- Author index.