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Global State Considered Unnecessary: Introduction to Object-Based Semantics

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Algol-like Languages

Part of the book series: Progress in Theoretical Computer Science ((PTCS))

Abstract

Semantics of imperative programming languages is traditionally described in terms of functions on global states. We propose here a novel approach based on a notion of objects and characterize them in terms of their observable behavior. States are regarded as part of the internal structure of objects and play no role in the observable behavior. It is shown that this leads to considerable accuracy in the semantic modelling of locality and single-threadedness properties of objects.

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  1. Uday S. Reddy
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Computer Science, Queen Mary & Westfield College, E1 4NS, England

    Peter W. O’Hearn

  2. Dept. of Computing and Information Science, Queen’s University, K7L 3N6, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

    Robert D. Tennent

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Reddy, U.S. (1997). Global State Considered Unnecessary: Introduction to Object-Based Semantics. In: O’Hearn, P.W., Tennent, R.D. (eds) Algol-like Languages. Progress in Theoretical Computer Science. Birkhäuser, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3851-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-3851-3_9

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