Dynsem: A DSL for dynamic semantics specification

Title

Dynsem: A DSL for dynamic semantics specification

 Author

Vergu, V.A. (TU Delft Programming Languages)
Neron, P.J.M. (TU Delft Software Engineering)
Visser, Eelco (TU Delft Programming Languages) ORCID 0000-0002-7384-3370

 Date

2015-06-01

 Abstract

The formal semantics of a programming language and its implementation are typically separately defined, with the risk of divergence such that properties of the formal semantics are not properties of the implementation. In this paper, we present DynSem, a domain-specific language for the specification of the dynamic semantics of programming languages that aims at supporting both formal reasoning and efficient interpretation. DynSem supports the specification of the operational semantics of a language by means of statically typed conditional term reduction rules. DynSem supports concise specification of reduction rules by providing implicit build and match coercions based on reduction arrows and implicit term constructors. DynSem supports modular specification by adopting implicit propagation of semantic components from I-MSOS, which allows omitting propagation of components such as environments and stores from rules that do not affect those. DynSem supports the declaration of native operators for delegation of aspects of the semantics to an external definition or implementation. DynSem supports the definition of auxiliary meta-functions, which can be expressed using regular reduction rules and are subject to semantic component propagation. DynSem specifications are executable through automatic generation of a Java-based AST interpreter.


 Subject

Dynamic semantics
IDE
Interpreters
Modularity
Programming languages
Reduction semantics
Semantics engineering

 To reference this document use:

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:945e15a0-faaa-48c7-8178-694c16be36f1

 DOI

https://doi.org/10.4230/LIPIcs.RTA.2015.365

 Publisher

Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing

 ISBN

9783939897859

 Source

26th International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications, RTA 2015, 36

 Event

26th International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications, RTA 2015, 2015-06-29 → 2015-07-01, Warsaw, Poland

 Part of collection

Institutional Repository

 Document type

conference paper

 Rights

© 2015 V.A. Vergu, P.J.M. Neron, Eelco Visser
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