Transitions and Trees

An Introduction to Structural Operational Semantics

By: Hans HÃ¼ttel

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Paperback | 29 April 2010

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292 Pages

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Structural operational semantics is a simple, yet powerful mathematical theory for describing the behaviour of programs in an implementation-independent manner. This book provides a self-contained introduction to structural operational semantics, featuring semantic definitions using big-step and small-step semantics of many standard programming language constructs, including control structures, structured declarations and objects, parameter mechanisms and procedural abstraction, concurrency, nondeterminism and the features of functional programming languages. Along the way, the text introduces and applies the relevant proof techniques, including forms of induction and notions of semantic equivalence (including bisimilarity). Thoroughly class-tested, this book has evolved from lecture notes used by the author over a 10-year period at Aalborg University to teach undergraduate and graduate students. The result is a thorough introduction that makes the subject clear to students and computing professionals without sacrificing its rigour. No experience with any specific programming language is required.

Industry Reviews

'This book explains how programming languages actually work, with a wealth of examples. It shows convincingly that these languages go hand-in-hand with the simplest kind of logic. I would enjoy teaching from it.' Robin Milner, University of Cambridge
'A useful and thorough introduction to the structural operational semantics of programming languages.' Gordon Plotkin, University of Edinburgh
'This book is an excellent introduction to the theory of structured operational semantics, an ideal choice for a first course on semantics for students in computer science. The book covers the theory all the way from a few simple mathematical preliminaries to advanced examples of its use in describing and reasoning about modern programming language features. The presentation is a result of the author's experience in teaching the material over more than ten years, and it is unique in its pedagogical approach, guiding the reader gently via illustrative examples and exercises, as well as several invitations to the reader to pause and reflect: a moment's thought.' Mogens Nielsen, Aarhus University

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Preface	p. ix
About the illustrations	p. xiii
List of illustrations	p. xiv
List of tables	p. xv
Background	p. 1
A question of semantics	p. 3
Semantics is the study of meaning	p. 3
Examples from the history of programming language	p. 4
Different approaches to program semantics	p. 6
Applications of program semantics	p. 10
Mathematical preliminaries	p. 16
Mathematical induction	p. 16
Logical notation	p. 17
Sets	p. 19
Operations on sets	p. 20
Relations	p. 21
Functions	p. 22
First Examples	p. 25
The basic principles	p. 27
Abstract syntax	p. 27
Transition systems	p. 30
Big-step vs. small-step semantics	p. 31
Operational semantics of arithmetic expressions	p. 31
Proving properties	p. 38
A semantics of Boolean expressions	p. 39
The elements of an operational semantics	p. 40
Basic imperative statements	p. 43
Program states	p. 43
A big-step semantics of statements	p. 45
A small-step semantics of statements in Bims	p. 53
Equivalence of the two semantics	p. 55
Two important proof techniques	p. 60
Language Constructs	p. 63
Control structures	p. 65
Some general assumptions	p. 65
Loop constructs	p. 66
Semantic equivalence	p. 70
Abnormal termination	p. 72
Nondeterminism	p. 73
Concurrency	p. 76
Blocks and procedures (1)	p. 79
Abstract syntax of Bip	p. 79
The environment-store model	p. 80
Arithmetic and Boolean expressions	p. 83
Declarations	p. 84
Statements	p. 85
Scope rules	p. 86
Parameters	p. 94
The language Bump	p. 94
Call-by-reference	p. 96
On recursive and non-recursive procedure calls	p. 97
Call-by-value	p. 99
Call-by-name	p. 100
A comparison of parameter mechanisms	p. 110
Concurrent communicating processes	p. 113
Channel-based communication - Cab	p. 113
Global and local behaviour	p. 114
Synchronous communication in Cab	p. 115
Other communication models	p. 119
Bisimulation equivalence	p. 122
Channels as data - the -calculus	p. 123
Structured declarations	p. 134
Records	p. 134
The language Bur	p. 135
The class-based language Coat	p. 142
Blocks and procedures (2)	p. 154
Run-time stacks	p. 154
Declarations	p. 155
Statements	p. 155
Concurrent object-oriented languages	p. 161
The language Cola	p. 161
A small-step semantics of concurrent behaviour	p. 163
Transition systems	p. 163
Functional programming languages	p. 171
What is a functional programming language?	p. 171
Historical background	p. 173
The -calculus	p. 174
Flan - a simple functional language	p. 177
Further reading	p. 181
Related Topics	p. 183
Typed programming languages	p. 185
Type systems	p. 185
Typed Bump	p. 187
Typed Flan	p. 198
Type polymorphism and type inference	p. 209
An introduction to denotational semantics	p. 211
Background	p. 211
-Notation	p. 212
Basic ideas	p. 214
Denotational semantics of statements	p. 216
Further reading	p. 220
Recursive definitions	p. 222
A first example	p. 222
A recursive definition specifies a fixed-point	p. 224
The fixed-point theorem	p. 225
How to apply the fixed-point theorem	p. 231
Examples of cpos	p. 232
Examples of continuous functions	p. 236
Examples of computations of fixed-points	p. 240
An equivalence result	p. 241
Other applications	p. 246
Further reading	p. 248
A big-step semantics of Bip	p. 249
Implementing semantic definitions in SML	p. 257
References	p. 264
Index	p. 269
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Transitions and Trees

An Introduction to Structural Operational Semantics

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

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