Algebraic Approaches to Program Semantics by Ernest G Manes

Algebraic Approaches to Program Semantics by Ernest G Manes

In the 1930s, mathematical logicians studied the notion of effective comput- ability using such notions as recursive functions, A-calculus, and Turing machines. The 1940s saw the construction of the first electronic computers, and the next 20 years saw the evolution of higher-level programming languages in which programs could be written in a convenient fashion independent (thanks to compilers and interpreters) of the architecture of any specific machine. The development of such languages led in turn to the general analysis of questions of syntax, structuring strings of symbols which could count as legal programs, and semantics, determining the meaning of a program, for example, as the function it computes in transforming input data to output results. An important approach to semantics, pioneered by Floyd, Hoare, and Wirth, is called assertion semantics: given a specification of which assertions (preconditions) on input data should guarantee that the results satisfy desired assertions (postconditions) on output data, one seeks a logical proof that the program satisfies its specification. An alternative approach, pioneered by Scott and Strachey, is called denotational semantics: it offers algebraic techniques for characterizing the denotation of (i. e., the function computed by) a program-the properties of the program can then be checked by direct comparison of the denotation with the specification. This book is an introduction to denotational semantics. More specifically, we introduce the reader to two approaches to denotational semantics: the order semantics of Scott and Strachey and our own partially additive semantics.

Michael Arbib is a professor of computer and information science, and director of the Center for Systems Neuroscience and the Laboratory for Perpetual Robotics, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His books include Brains, Machines, and Mathematics: The Metaphorical Brain: and Computers and the Cybernetic Society.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781461293774
ISBN 10	1461293774
Title	Algebraic Approaches to Program Semantics
Author	Ernest G Manes
Series	Monographs In Computer Science
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Year published	2014-01-17
Number of pages	353
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.