MSPLS Spring '98 Workshop
Abstract

Action Transformation: An Application of Sort Inference

Kent Lee (Dept. of Computer Science, Luther College)

Action Semantics is a formal method of defining programming language semantics in which actions describe the manipulation of three entities: transients, bindings, and storage. An Action Semantic Description for a programming language translates a program in the source language to a corresponding action. However, due to the high-level nature of Action Semantics, actions cannot generally be directly translated into efficient code in an Action Semantics-based compiler. However, by applying sort inference to an action, it is possible to transform it into an action that can be translated into efficient code. This talk will demonstrate the problem and solution by giving an example of a simple program and it's compilation to efficient code using an Action Semantics-based compiler.


Gerald Baumgartner