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Cambridge Computer Science Texts
A Practical Introduction to Denotational Semantics (Cambridge Computer Science Texts) by L. Allison
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- GenresMathematics
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First published January 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 29, 2025
I cut my teeth on Scott-Strachey Denotational Semantics, which used little more that Set Theory as its object language. But this book is based on Polymorphic Typed Lambda Calculus, which is actually a richer language than the one I am trying to define! Also, the fact that the meaning of a program is a mathematical object is lost. Semantics as given here merely translates from one programming language to another: it is a compiler. The beauty of the Set Theory formalism is that it provides an escape from computer science to a world where thing are proved rather than executed.
Nevertheless, it is a useful refresher, and it does lay out the notation I require.
This book was written using Pascal and Algol-68 as teaching languages. Younger readers might find that more difficult than I did.
Nevertheless, it is a useful refresher, and it does lay out the notation I require.
This book was written using Pascal and Algol-68 as teaching languages. Younger readers might find that more difficult than I did.
July 4, 2019
Not as comprehensive or as rigorous as Stoy. Makes mention of Milner's CCS in the final chapter.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews