compilers@ima.UUCP (01/09/86)
[from ihnp4!philabs!sbcs!debray (Saumya Debray)] > When I read a denotational semantics, I think of it as an > operational semantics written in Scheme ... One big difference between denotational and opeerational semantics is that the former lets us talk about nonterminating computations in a useful way. All nonterminating computations are treated as being equivalent to "bottom", which essentially denotes "having zero information content"; this isn't possible in operational semantics. This equivalence forms the basis for strictness analysis, for example, which enables us to replace call-by-name parameter passing by an "equivalent" (but much more efficient) call-by-value parameter passing at compile time. -Saumya Debray SUNY at Stony Brook