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Assignment Calculus: A Pure Imperative Language

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Logical Foundations of Computer Science (LFCS 2013)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7734))

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Abstract

We undertake a study of imperative computation. Beginning with a philosophical analysis of the distinction between imperative and functional language features, we define a (pure) imperative language as one whose constructs are (inherently) referentially opaque. We then give a definition of a computation language by identifying desirable properties for such a language.

We present a new pure imperative computation language, Assignment Calculus AC. The main idea behind AC is based on the insight of T. Janssen that Montague’s modal operators of intension and extension, developed for the study of natural language semantics, are also useful for the semantics of programming language features such as assignments and pointers. AC consists of only four basic constructs, assignment ‘X: = t’, sequence ‘t;u’, procedure formation ‘¡t’ and procedure invocation ‘!t’. Two interpretations are given for AC: an operational semantics and a term-rewriting system; these interpretations turn out to be equivalent.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing and Software, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont., L8S 4L8, Canada

    Marc Bender & Jeffery Zucker

Authors
  1. Marc Bender
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  2. Jeffery Zucker
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, 10016, New York, NY, USA

    Sergei Artemov

  2. Department of Mathematics, Cornell University, 545 Malott Hall, 14853, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Anil Nerode

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Bender, M., Zucker, J. (2013). Assignment Calculus: A Pure Imperative Language. In: Artemov, S., Nerode, A. (eds) Logical Foundations of Computer Science. LFCS 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7734. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35722-0_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35722-0_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-35721-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-35722-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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