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International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Software

TACS 1994: Theoretical Aspects of Computer Software pp 244–272Cite as

Extensible denotational language specifications

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 789))

Abstract

Traditional denotational semantics assigns radically different meanings to one and the same phrase depending on the rest of the programming language. If the language is purely functional, the denotation of a numeral is a function from environments to integers. But, in a functional language with imperative control operators, a numeral denotes a function from environments and continuations to integers. This paper introduces a new format for denotational language specifications, extended direct semantics, that accommodates orthogonal extensions of a language without changing the denotations of existing phrases. An extended direct semantics always maps a numeral to the same denotation: the injection of the corresponding number into the domain of values. In general, the denotation of a phrase in a functional language is always a projection of the denotation of the same phrase in the semantics of an extended language—no matter what the extension is. Based on extended direct semantics, it is also possible to construct interpreters for complete languages by composing interpreters for language fragments.

The paper is an extended and revised version of Rice Technical Report 90-105, “Extended Direct Semantics”, January 1990.

The authors are partially supported by NSF grant CCR 91-22518. The second author is also partially supported by Arpa grant 8313, issued by ESD/AVS under Contract No. F196228-91-C-0168 under the direction of Robert Harper and Peter Lee.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Rice University, 77251-1892, Houston, TX

    Robert Cartwright & Matthias Felleisen

  2. Department of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, 15213-3890, Pittsburgh, PA

    Matthias Felleisen

Authors
  1. Robert Cartwright
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  2. Matthias Felleisen
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Editor information

Masami Hagiya John C. Mitchell

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cartwright, R., Felleisen, M. (1994). Extensible denotational language specifications. In: Hagiya, M., Mitchell, J.C. (eds) Theoretical Aspects of Computer Software. TACS 1994. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 789. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57887-0_99

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-57887-0_99

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-57887-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48383-0

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