An Equational Specification for the Scheme Language

Marcelo d'Amorim (Formal Systems Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana­Champaign, USA)

Grigore Rosu (Formal Systems Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana­Champaign, USA)

Abstract: This work describes the formal semantics of Scheme 3 as an equational theory in the Maude rewriting system. The semantics is based on continuations and is highly modular. We briefly investigate the relationship between our methodology for defining programming languages and other semantic formalisms. We conclude by showing some performance results of the interpreter obtained for free from the executable specification.

Keywords: equational specification, formal and executable semantics, program analysis

Categories: D.3.1, D.3.4