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Global state considered unnecessary: An introduction to object-based semantics

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LISP and Symbolic Computation

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 ofobjects 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. Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL

    Uday S. Reddy

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Reddy, U.S. Global state considered unnecessary: An introduction to object-based semantics. Lisp and Symbolic Computation 9, 7–76 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01806032

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