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The Beauty of Functional Code pp 60–78Cite as

Functional Semantics

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 8106))

Abstract

In ordinary interpreters and executable specifications of operational semantics the interpreted language is represented by an algebraic data type and the operations are functions having this data type as argument. In this essay we reverse the roles of functions and data structures. Here the language constructs are represented by state transforming functions belonging to some class. There are instances of this class for the operations on the specified language. Typical examples of operations are reduction, pretty printing, and transformations. The state is a data structure indicating the desired operation. The advantage of this approach is that it is easy to add language constructs and operations independently of each other.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS), Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Pieter Koopman

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  1. Pieter Koopman
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (ICIS), Radboud University Nijmegen, Heijendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Peter Achten

  2. Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (ICIS), Radboud University Nijmegen, Heijendaalseweg 135,, 6525 AJ, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Pieter Koopman

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Koopman, P. (2013). Functional Semantics. In: Achten, P., Koopman, P. (eds) The Beauty of Functional Code. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8106. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40355-2_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40355-2_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40354-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40355-2

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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