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Concept
Semantics (computer science)
Summary
In programming language theory, semantics is the rigorous mathematical study of the meaning of programming languages. Semantics assigns computational meaning to valid strings in a programming language syntax. It is closely related to, and often crosses over with, the semantics of mathematical proofs.
Semantics describes the processes a computer follows when executing a program in that specific language. This can be shown by describing the relationship between the input and output of a program, or an explanation of how the program will be executed on a certain platform, hence creating a model of computation.
In 1967, Robert W. Floyd publishes the paper Assigning meanings to programs; his chief aim is "a rigorous standard for proofs about computer programs, including proofs of correctness, equivalence, and termination". Floyd further writes:
A semantic definition of a programming language, in our approach, is founded on a syntactic definition. It must specify which of the phrases in a syntactically correct program represent commands, and what conditions must be imposed on an interpretation in the neighborhood of each command.
In 1969, Tony Hoare publishes a paper on Hoare logic seeded by Floyd's ideas, now sometimes collectively called axiomatic semantics.
In the 1970s, the terms operational semantics and denotational semantics emerged.
The field of formal semantics encompasses all of the following:
The definition of semantic models
The relations between different semantic models
The relations between different approaches to meaning
The relation between computation and the underlying mathematical structures from fields such as logic, set theory, model theory, , etc.
It has close links with other areas of computer science such as programming language design, type theory, compilers and interpreters, program verification and model checking.
There are many approaches to formal semantics; these belong to three major classes:
Denotational semantics, whereby each phrase in the language is interpreted as a denotation, i.e.
Official source
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