Abstract
A notion of language semantics is introduced and a problem of its formal definition is determined. A metalanguage is suggested for formal description of semantics of contemporary programming systems. The metalanguage is based on the development of the notion of memory in the known metalanguage of pushdown acceptors and in syntactic R-metalanguage. New abstract memories are introduced and determined: wagon, register and table memories. The technique of using new metalanguage is illustrated. It is noted that the formal description of the language semantics is unseparable from the description of its syntax and increase it not very much, on the average, by 1,5-2 times. Characteristics are given of a formal description of syntax and semantics of ALGOL-60. A general technological scheme of using the semantic R-metalanguage in systems of algorithmic language realization is suggested.
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© 1977 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Vel'bitskiy, I.V. (1977). Metalanguage for formal definition of semantics of programming languages. In: Ershov, A., Koster, C.H.A. (eds) Methods of Algorithmic Language Implementation. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 47. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-08065-1_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-08065-1_7
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