hans@cs.edinburgh.ac.uk ('Hans Huttel') (11/16/90)
In article <428@data.UUCP>, kend@data.UUCP (Ken Dickey) writes: > rst@cs.hull.ac.uk (Rob Turner) writes: [ stuff on a proposed coure on Models of Computation down in Hull deleted ] > >It will include discussions of the various programming language > >paradigms, such as imperative, functional, logic, and object-oriented. > >It will also deal with semantics. > If you want to get into operational semantics (why?), you might look > at Bauer & Wossner: "Algorighmic Language and Program Development", > Springer Verlag, 1981 and the related project CIP transformation > system for "wide spectrum" language development (Springer lecture > notes #183 and #292). I believe Pepper has a newer text along this > line (also SpringerV), but I forget the title. I think the approach to operational semantics that Rob Turner had in mind was that of Structural Operational Semantics (SOS). In this approach the relationship with denotational semantics is very clear. The classic here is of course the lecture notes by Gordon Plotkin, "A Structural Approach to Operational Semantics", Aarhus University 1980, but that report is out of print now. There is now, however, a book out by Matthew Hennessy (the publisher is Wiley; the title of the book escapes me right now). BTW, t he notes used in the semantics courses here at Edinburgh are quite good, too. An aside (?): I don't think the title "Models of Computation" is such a bad choice; a course focussing on Turing machines, Markov algorithms etc. should be called "Models for Computability" if you ask me. -- Hans H\"{u}ttel, Office 1603 JANET: hans@uk.ac.ed.lfcs Lab. for Foundations of Comp. Sci. UUCP: ..!mcvax!ukc!lfcs!hans University of Edinburgh ARPA: hans%lfcs.ed.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, SCOTLAND Ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
gordon@cs.tamu.edu (Dan Gordon) (11/17/90)
In article <2058@skye.cs.ed.ac.uk> hans@cs.edinburgh.ac.uk ('Hans Huttel') writes: >[Discussion on a course in operational semantics] >An aside (?): I don't think the title "Models of Computation" is such a bad choice; a course focussing on Turing machines, Markov algorithms etc. should be called "Models for Computability" if you ask me. Well, the term "models of computation" has for years had a certain connotation in theoretical computer science, and has been used for exactly such things as Turing machines, etc. To give this name to a course on something else misleads the students and most other universities that the students might apply to in the future. If it's a course in operational semantics, why not call it "operational semantics"? If the title of the course has been mandated and cannot be changed, then ... well ... it's none of my business...