This volume is the proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Language Semantics held at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 8-10, 1987. The 1st Workshop was at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas in April, 1985 (see LNCS 239), and the 2nd Workshop with a limited number of participants was at Kansas State in April, 1986. It was the intention of the organizers that the 3rd Workshop survey as many areas of the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Language Semantics as reasonably possible. The Workshop attracted 49 submitted papers, from which 28 papers were chosen for presentation. The papers ranged in subject from category theory and Lambda-calculus to the structure theory of domains and power domains, to implementation issues surrounding semantics.

Semantics of Programming Languages exposes the basic motivations and philosophy underlying the applications of semantic techniques in computer science. It introduces the mathematical theory of programming languages with an emphasis on higher-order functions and type systems. Designed as a text for upper-level and graduate-level students, the mathematically sophisticated approach will also prove useful to professionals who want an easily referenced description of fundamental results and calculi. Basic connections between computational behavior, denotational semantics, and the equational logic of functional programs are thoroughly and rigorously developed. Topics covered include models of types, operational semantics, category theory, domain theory, fixed point (denotational). semantics, full abstraction and other semantic correspondence criteria, types and evaluation, type checking and inference, parametric polymorphism, and subtyping. All topics are treated clearly and in depth, with complete proofs for the major results and numerous exercises.

The Formal Semantics of Programming Languages provides the basic mathematical techniques necessary for those who are beginning a study of the semantics and logics of programming languages. These techniques will allow students to invent, formalize, and justify rules with which to reason about a variety of programming languages. Although the treatment is elementary, several of the topics covered are drawn from recent research, including the vital area of concurency. The book contains many exercises ranging from simple to miniprojects.Starting with basic set theory, structural operational semantics is introduced as a way to define the meaning of programming languages along with associated proof techniques. Denotational and axiomatic semantics are illustrated on a simple language of while-programs, and fall proofs are given of the equivalence of the operational and denotational semantics and soundness and relative completeness of the axiomatic semantics. A proof of Godel's incompleteness theorem, which emphasizes the impossibility of achieving a fully complete axiomatic semantics, is included. It is supported by an appendix providing an introduction to the theory of computability based on while-programs. Following a presentation of domain theory, the semantics and methods of proof for several functional languages are treated. The simplest language is that of recursion equations with both call-by-value and call-by-name evaluation. This work is extended to lan guages with higher and recursive types, including a treatment of the eager and lazy lambda-calculi. Throughout, the relationship between denotational and operational semantics is stressed, and the proofs of the correspondence between the operation and denotational semantics are provided. The treatment of recursive types - one of the more advanced parts of the book - relies on the use of information systems to represent domains. The book concludes with a chapter on parallel programming languages, accompanied by a discussion of methods for specifying and verifying nondeterministic and parallel programs.

This volume is the proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Language Semantics held at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, April 8-10, 1987. The 1st Workshop was at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas in April, 1985 (see LNCS 239), and the 2nd Workshop with a limited number of participants was at Kansas State in April, 1986. It was the intention of the organizers that the 3rd Workshop survey as many areas of the Mathematical Foundations of Programming Language Semantics as reasonably possible. The Workshop attracted 49 submitted papers, from which 28 papers were chosen for presentation. The papers ranged in subject from category theory and Lambda-calculus to the structure theory of domains and power domains, to implementation issues surrounding semantics.

"Programming languages embody the pragmatics of designing software systems, and also the mathematical concepts which underlie them. Anyone who wants to know how, for example, object-oriented programming rests upon a firm foundation in logic should read this book. It guides one surefootedly through the rich variety of basic programming concepts developed over the past forty years." -- Robin Milner, Professor of Computer Science, The Computer Laboratory, Cambridge University "Programming languages need not be designed in an intellectual vacuum; John Mitchell's book provides an extensive analysis of the fundamental notions underlying programming constructs. A basic grasp of this material is essential for the understanding, comparative analysis, and design of programming languages." -- Luca Cardelli, Digital Equipment Corporation Written for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students, "Foundations for Programming Languages" uses a series of typed lambda calculi to study the axiomatic, operational, and denotational semantics of sequential programming languages. Later chapters are devoted to progressively more sophisticated type systems.

This book unifies a broad range of programming language concepts under the framework of type systems and structural operational semantics.

Covering the authors' own state-of-the-art research results, this book presents a rigorous, modern account of the mathematical methods and tools required for the semantic analysis of logic programs. It significantly extends the tools and methods from traditional order theory to include nonconventional methods from mathematical analysis that depend on topology, domain theory, generalized distance functions, and associated fixed-point theory. The authors closely examine the interrelationships between various semantics as well as the integration of logic programming and connectionist systems/neural networks.