Executable Semantics for a Subset of COLD

摘要

In order to develop an interpreter for the specification language COLD, anexecutable subset of this language referred to as PROTOCOLD is introduced. A semantics for PROTOCOLD is given, which is easier to understand than the relational semantics for the full language COLD. The semantics describes the behavior of the language constructs by inference rules. The starting point is an abstract semantics and the endpoint is a more executable one from which it is only a small step towards a code generator. By studying the semantics presented one can find limitations in the language which may increase the efficiency of the associated interpreter.