Higher Order Operational Techniques in Semantics: 12 (Publications of the Newton Institute, Series Number 12) - Hardcover

Edited By Andrew D. Gordon, Andrew M. Pitts

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521631688 ISBN 13: 9780521631686

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1998

Synopsis

Most object-oriented or functional languages are higher order languages, i.e. ones in which the means of manipulation (e.g. object or function) can itself be manipulated. This 1998 book contains a collection of original articles about recent developments in operational semantics for higher order programming languages by some of the leading researchers in the field. Operational techniques are important because they are closer to implementations and language definitions than more abstract mathematical techniques such as denotational semantics. One of the exciting developments reflected by the book is that mathematical structures and techniques used in denotational semantics (such as fixpoint induction) may be recovered from a purely operational starting point. The book surveys and introduces techniques such as contextual equivalence, applicative bisimulation, logical relations, improvement relations, explicit models of memory management, and labelling techniques for confluence properties. It treats a variety of higher order languages, based on functions, processes and objects, with and without side effects, typed and untyped.

About this title

About the Author

Andrew Pitts FACM FBCS is Professor of Theoretical Computer Science at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Darwin College.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521631688
• ISBN 13: 9780521631686
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400