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A Framework for Modeling the Semantics of Expression Evaluation with Abstract State Machines

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Abstract State Machines 2003 (ASM 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2589))

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Abstract

We present a framework for formalizing the semantics of expression evaluation using Abstract State Machines. Many programming languages allow some non-determinism for evaluating expressions. The semantics only have in common that arguments are evaluated before an operator is applied. The evaluation of one argument may be interleaved with the evaluation of the other arguments. However, programming languages usually restrict this most liberal evaluation order. For example, the expression evaluation may take into account short-circuit evaluation of boolean expressions which implies that right operands must not be evaluated before the complete left operand is evaluated. Our approach provides a generic expression evaluation semantics that only need to be instantiated adequatly. We demonstrate this approach by the example of Ada95, C, C++, Java, C#, and Fortran.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg Institut für Informatik, 06099, Halle/Saale, Germany

    Wolf Zimmermann

  2. Abteilung Künstliche Intelligenz, Universität Ulm, 89069, Ulm, Germany

    Axel Dold

Authors
  1. Wolf Zimmermann
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  2. Axel Dold
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Informatica, Università di Pisa, Via Buonarotti 2, 56127, Pisa, Italy

    Egon Börger

  2. CEA, Università di Catania, Piazza Università 2, 95124, Catania, Italy

    Angelo Gargantini

  3. Dipartimento di Matematica e Informatica, Università di Catania, Città Universitaria, viale A. Doria 6, 95125, Catania, Italy

    Elvinia Riccobene

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Zimmermann, W., Dold, A. (2003). A Framework for Modeling the Semantics of Expression Evaluation with Abstract State Machines. In: Börger, E., Gargantini, A., Riccobene, E. (eds) Abstract State Machines 2003. ASM 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2589. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36498-6_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-36498-6_23

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-00624-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-36498-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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