Flag-based big-step semantics

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jlamp.2016.05.001Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • We present a novel approach to representing divergence and abrupt termination in big-step SOS.

  • Our approach alleviates the duplication problem in big-step SOS, and improves conciseness compared with the literature.

  • We illustrate how our approach could be automated to derive flag-based big-step rules from standard big-step SOS rules.

  • We present a novel proof method for proving the equivalence between small-step and big-step SOS rules for divergence.

Abstract

Structural operational semantic specifications come in different styles: small-step and big-step. A problem with the big-step style is that specifying divergence and abrupt termination gives rise to annoying duplication. We present a novel approach to representing divergence and abrupt termination in big-step semantics using status flags. This avoids the duplication problem, and uses fewer rules and premises for representing divergence than previous approaches in the literature.

Keywords

Structural operational semantics
SOS
Coinduction
Big-step semantics
Natural semantics
Small-step semantics

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Present address: Programming Languages Group, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, Netherlands.