(Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this email)
BCS FACS - Annual Peter Landin Semantics Seminar
On correspondences between programming languages and semantic notations
By Prof Peter Mosses (Swansea University)
Date/Time: 8th December 2014, 6pm
Venue: BCS, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street,
London, WC2E 7HA
Cost to attend: **FREE OF CHARGE***, but, please book your place via the
BCS online booking system:
https://events.bcs.org/book/1170/
Peter Landin (1930 - 2009) was a pioneer whose ideas underpin modern
computing. In the the 1950s and 1960s, Landin showed that programs
could be defined in terms of mathematical functions, translated into
functional expressions in the lambda calculus, and their meaning
calculated with an abstract mathematical machine. Compiler writers
and designers of modern-day programming languages alike owe much
to Landin's pioneering work.
Each year, a leading figure in computer science will pay tribute to
Landin's contribution to computing through a public seminar. This
year's seminar is entitled "On correspondences between programming
languages and semantic notations" and will be given by
Prof. Peter Mosses (Swansea University).
Programme
========
5.15pm Tea/Coffee
6.00pm Welcome & Introduction (Professor Tony Clark,
Middlesex University)
6.05pm Peter Landin Semantics Seminar
On correspondences between programming
languages and semantic notations
Prof Peter Mosses
(Swansea University)
7.20pm -8.30pm Drinks Reception
Seminar details
===========
50 years ago, at the IFIP Working Conference on Formal Language
Description Languages, Peter Landin presented a paper on “A formal
description of ALGOL 60”. In it, he explained “a correspondence between
certain features of current programming languages and a modified form
of Church’s λ-notation”, and suggested using that as the basis for formal
semantics. He regarded his formal description of ALGOL 60 as a “compiler”
from ALGOL abstract syntax to λ-notation.
10 years later, denotational semantics was well established, and two
denotational descriptions of ALGOL 60 had been produced as case
studies: one in the VDM style developed at IBM-Vienna, the other in the
continuations-based style adopted in Christopher Strachey’s Programming
Research Group at Oxford.
After recalling Landin’s approach, I’ll illustrate how it differs from
denotational semantics, based on the ALGOL 60 descriptions. I’ll also
present a recently developed component-based semantics for ALGOL 60,
involving its translation to an open-ended collection of so-called fundamental
constructs. I’ll assume familiarity with the main concepts of
denotational semantics.
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