Action semantics is a framework for the formal specification of semantics of programming languages invented by David Watt and Peter D. Mosses. It is a mixture of denotational, operational and algebraic semantics.
Action Semantics aims to be pragmatic. Action-Semantic Descriptions (ASDs) are designed to scale up to handle realistic programming languages. This is aided by the extensibility and modifiability of ASDs. This helps to ensure that extensions and changes do not require too many changes in the description. This is in contrast to the typical case when extending denotational or operational semantics, which may require reformulation of the entire description.
The Action Semantics framework was originally developed at the University of Aarhus and the University of Glasgow. Groups and individuals around the world have since contributed further to the approach.
Read more about Action Semantics: Semantic Entities, Action Entities, Data Entities, Yielder Entities, Action Notation, Other Key Aspects
Famous quotes containing the word action:
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)