A Semantic Algebra for Binding Constructs

Abstract

This paper presents a semantic algebra, suitable for use in giving the denotational semantics of various forms of declarations and binding constructs in programming languages. The emphasis of the paper is on the development of semantic descriptions which are easy to understand at an intuitive level, being based on algebraic operators corresponding to fundamental concepts of programming languages. Some familiarity with denotational semantics and abstract data types is assumed.