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Skeletal semantics and their interpretations

Authors:

Philippa Gardner,

Alan SchmittAuthors Info & Claims

Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Volume 3, Issue POPL

Article No.: 44, Pages 1 - 31

https://doi.org/10.1145/3290357

Published: 02 January 2019 Publication History

Abstract

The development of mechanised language specification based on structured operational semantics, with applications to verified compilers and sound program analysis, requires huge effort. General theory and frameworks have been proposed to help with this effort. However, none of this work provides a systematic way of developing concrete and abstract semantics, connected together by a general consistency result. We introduce a skeletal semantics of a language, where each skeleton describes the complete semantic behaviour of a language construct. We define a general notion of interpretation, which provides a systematic and language-independent way of deriving semantic judgements from the skeletal semantics. We explore four generic interpretations: a simple well-formedness interpretation; a concrete interpretation; an abstract interpretation; and a constraint generator for flow-sensitive analysis. We prove general consistency results between interpretations, depending only on simple language-dependent lemmas. We illustrate our ideas using a simple While language.

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Beck CYoon IChen HZakowski YZdancewic S(2024)A Two-Phase Infinite/Finite Low-Level Memory Model: Reconciling Integer–Pointer Casts, Finite Space, and undef at the LLVM IR Level of AbstractionProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36746528:ICFP(789-817)Online publication date: 15-Aug-2024
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Michelland SZakowski YGonnord L(2024)Abstract Interpreters: A Monadic Approach to Modular VerificationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36746468:ICFP(602-629)Online publication date: 15-Aug-2024
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Lesbre DLemerre M(2024)Compiling with Abstract InterpretationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36563928:PLDI(368-393)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2024
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Index Terms

Skeletal semantics and their interpretations
1. Theory of computation
  1. Semantics and reasoning
    1. Program semantics

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Published In

cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages

Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages Volume 3, Issue POPL

January 2019

2275 pages

EISSN:2475-1421

DOI:10.1145/3302515

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Copyright © 2019 Owner/Author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs International 4.0 License.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 02 January 2019

Published in PACMPL Volume 3, Issue POPL

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Cited By

Beck CYoon IChen HZakowski YZdancewic S(2024)A Two-Phase Infinite/Finite Low-Level Memory Model: Reconciling Integer–Pointer Casts, Finite Space, and undef at the LLVM IR Level of AbstractionProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36746528:ICFP(789-817)Online publication date: 15-Aug-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3674652
Michelland SZakowski YGonnord L(2024)Abstract Interpreters: A Monadic Approach to Modular VerificationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36746468:ICFP(602-629)Online publication date: 15-Aug-2024
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Lesbre DLemerre M(2024)Compiling with Abstract InterpretationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36563928:PLDI(368-393)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3656392
Smith SZhang R(2024)A Pure Demand Operational Semantics with Applications to Program AnalysisProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36498528:OOPSLA1(1154-1180)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2024
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Keidel SErdweg SHombücher T(2023)Combinator-Based Fixpoint Algorithms for Big-Step Abstract InterpretersProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36078637:ICFP(955-981)Online publication date: 30-Aug-2023
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