Back to Seminars
home page

Institutt for informatikk seminar: Thursday 6 April, kl. 14:15

Programming language semantics: a tool-oriented approach

Jan Heering

C.W.I., Amsterdam

Programming language semantics has lost touch with large groups of potential users. Among the reasons for this unfortunate state of affairs, one stands out. Semantic results are rarely incorporated in practical systems that would help language designers to implement and test a language under development, or assist programmers in answering their questions about the meaning of some language feature not properly documented in the language's reference manual. Nevertheless, such systems are potentially more effective in bringing semantics-based formalisms and techniques to the places they are needed than their dissemination in publications, courses, or even exemplary (but little-used) programming languages. The tool-oriented approach to semantics aims at making semantics definitions more useful and productive by generating as many language-based tools from them as possible. Ultimately, this may lead to the emergence of "Language Design Assistants" incorporating substantial amounts of semantic knowledge.

Back to seminar homepage