一个集成式的软件构件描述框架

该文提出了一个可扩展、可裁减的集成式软件构件描述框架。该框架采用了相宜的方法对构件的接口、语义、问题空间等方面进行描述，并且通过XML提供了可扩展的机制。实践证明，在该框架基础上实现的构件库管理系统体现了较好的构件描述与检索能力。     

SEMANOL (73) a metalanguage for programming the semantics of programming languages

Summary SEMANOL is a practical programming system for writing readable formal specifications of the syntax and semantics of programming languages. SEMANOL is based on a theory of semantics which embraces algorithmic (operational) and extensional (input/output) semantics. Specifications for large contemporary languages have been constructed in the formal language, SEMANOL (73), which is a readable high-level notation. A SEMANOL (73) specification can be executed (by an existing interpreter program); when given a program from the specified language, and its input, the execution of the SEMANOL (73) specification produces the program's output. The demonstrated executability of SEMANOL (73) provides important practical advantages. This paper includes discussions of the theory of semantics underlying SEMANOL, the syntax and semantics of the SEMANOL (73) language, the use of the SEMANOL (73) language in the SEMANOL method for describing programming languages, and the contrast between the Vienna definition method (VDL) and SEMANOL.     

Equivalence of formal semantics definition methods

There are numerous methods of formally defining the semantics of computer languages. Each method has been designed to fulfil a different purpose. For example, some have been designed to make reasoning about languages as easy as possible; others have been designed to be accessible to a large audience and some have been designed to ease implementation of languages. Given two semantics definitions of a language written using two separate semantics definition methods, we must be able to show that the two are in fact equivalent. If we cannot do this then we either have an error in one of the semantics definitions, or more seriously we have a problem with the semantics definition methods themselves.Three methods of defining the semantics of computer languages have been considered, i.e. Denotational Semantics, Structural Operational Semantics and Action Semantics. An equivalence between these three is shown for a specific example language by first defining its semantics using each of the three definition methods. The proof of the equivalence is then constructed by selecting pairs of the semantics definitions and showing that they define the same language.A full version of this paper can be accessed via our web page http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/fmethods/ facj.html     

An operational semantics for object-oriented concepts based on the class hierarchy

The formalisation of object-oriented languages is essential for describing the implementation details of specific programming languages or for developing program verification techniques. However there has been relatively little formalisation work aimed at abstractly describing the fundamental concepts of object-oriented programming, separate from specific language considerations or suitability for a particular verification style. In this paper we address this issue by formalising a language that includes the core object-oriented programming language concepts of field tests and updates, methods, constructors, subclassing, multithreading, and synchronisation, built on top of standard sequential programming constructs. The abstract syntax is relatively close to the core of typical object-oriented programming languages such as Java. A novel aspect of the syntax is that objects and classes are encapsulated within a single syntactic term, including their fields and methods. Furthermore, class terms are structured according to the class hierarchy, and objects appear as subterms of their class (and method instances as subterms of the relevant object). This helps to narrow the gap between how a programmer thinks about their code and the underlying mathematical objects in the semantics. The semantics is defined operationally, so that all actions a program may take, such as testing or setting local variables and fields, or invoking methods on other objects, appear on the labels of the transitions. A process-algebraic style of interprocess communication is used for object and class interactions. A benefit of this label-based approach to the semantics is that a separation of concerns can be made when defining the rules of the different constructs, and the rules tend to be more concise. The basic rules for individual commands may be composed into more powerful rules that operate at the level of classes and objects. The traces generated by the operational semantics are used as the basis for establishing equivalence between classes.     

Garment中的归约语义

文中用代数方法研究了Ｇａｒｍｅｎｔ中程序设计语言的归约语义，首先给出了归约语义在形式语言理论中的含义，然后提出了Ｇａｒｍｅｎｔ中语言的代数模型。在此代数模型下讨论了归约语义及其性质，并给出了语言可归的充分条件。     

A representation independent language for planar spatial databases with Euclidean distance

Linear constraint databases and query languages are appropriate for spatial database applications. Not only is the data model suitable for representing a large portion of spatial data such as in GIS systems, but there also exist efficient algorithms for the core operations in the query languages. An important limitation of linear constraints, however, is that they cannot model constructs such as Euclidean distance; extending such languages to include such constructs, without obtaining the full power of polynomial constraints has proven to be quite difficult.One approach to this problem, by Kuijpers, Kuper, Paredaens, and Vandeurzen, used the notion of Euclidean constructions with ruler and compass as the basis for a first order query language. While their language had the desired expressive power, the semantics are not really natural, due to its use of an ad hoc encoding. In this paper, we define a language over a similar class of databases, with more natural semantics. We show that this language captures a natural subclass, the representation independent queries of the first order language of Kuijpers, Kuper, Paredaens, and Vandeurzen.     

Well-definedness and semantic type-checking for the nested relational calculus

The well-definedness problem for a programming language consists of checking, given an expression and an input type, whether the semantics of the expression is defined for all inputs adhering to the input type. A related problem is the semantic type-checking problem which consists of checking, given an expression, an input type, and an output type whether the expression always returns outputs adhering to the output type on inputs adhering to the input type. Both problems are undecidable for general-purpose programming languages. In this paper we study these problems for the Nested Relational Calculus, a specific-purpose database query language. We also investigate how these problems behave in the presence of programming language features such as singleton coercion and type tests.     

Language components for modular DSLs using traits

Recent advances in tooling and modern programming languages have progressively brought back the practice of developing domain-specific languages as a means to improve software development. Consequently, the problem of making composition between languages easier by emphasizing code reuse and componentized programming is a topic of increasing interest in research. In fact, it is not uncommon for different languages to share common features, and, because in the same project different DSLs may coexist to model concepts from different problem areas, it is interesting to study ways to develop modular, extensible languages. Earlier work has shown that traits can be used to modularize the semantics of a language implementation; a lot of attention is often spent on embedded DSLs; even when external DSLs are discussed, the main focus is on modularizing the semantics. In this paper we will show a complete trait-based approach to modularize not only the semantics but also the syntax of external DSLs, thereby simplifying extension and therefore evolution of a language implementation. We show the benefits of implementing these techniques using the Scala programming language.