Lecture Notes on Semantics of Programming Languages

Author : Dr. Andrew M. Pitts, Cambridge University Computer Laboratory
Publication Date : 1997, last revised in 2000

Document Excerpts:

These notes are designed to accompany 12 lectures on programming language semantics for Part IB of the Cambridge University Computer Science Tripos. The aim of the course is to introduce the structural, operational approach to programming language semantics. It shows how this formalism is used to specify the meaning of some simple programming language constructs and to reason formally about semantic properties of programs.

At the end of the course the student should:

* be familiar with rule-based presentations of the operational semantics of some simple imperative, functional and interactive program constructs;
* be able to prove properties of an operational semantics using various forms of induction (mathematical, structural, and rule-based);
* and be familiar with some operationally-based notions of semantic equivalence of program phrases and their basic properties.

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Also check Hennessy's Semantics of Programming Languages