Re: What is the meaning of an expression?

anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl)
Fri, 14 Jan 2022 18:20:48 GMT

          From comp.compilers
Related articles
What is the meaning of an expression? costello@mitre.org (Roger L Costello) (2022-01-14)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (2022-01-14)
What is the meaning of an expression? christopher.f.clark@compiler-resources.com (Christopher F Clark) (2022-01-14)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? DrDiettrich1@netscape.net (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2022-01-15)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? gah4@u.washington.edu (gah4) (2022-01-14)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? gneuner2@comcast.net (George Neuner) (2022-01-15)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? matt.timmermans@gmail.com (matt.ti...@gmail.com) (2022-01-15)
Re: What is the meaning of an expression? 0xe2.0x9a.0x9b@gmail.com (Jan Ziak) (2022-01-16)
[12 later articles]
| List of all articles for this month |
From: anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl)
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2022 18:20:48 GMT
Organization: Institut fuer Computersprachen, Technische Universitaet Wien
References: 22-01-052
Injection-Info: gal.iecc.com; posting-host="news.iecc.com:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970"; logging-data="24108"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@iecc.com"
Keywords: semantics
Posted-Date: 14 Jan 2022 13:48:48 EST

Roger L Costello <costello@mitre.org> writes:
>Do you always use the word "meaning" or do you sometimes use the word
>"semantics"? Do the two words mean (no pun intended) the same thing to you,
>from a compiler perspective?


"Semantics" is more technical, and not completely synonymous with
"meaning". When talking about the meaning of a piece of code, we tend
to differentiate between syntax (what is described by a context-free
grammar) and semantics (everything beyond that). Semantics is divided
into static semantics (how to interpret the code at compile time), and
run-time semantics (what happens at run-time). Whether you refer to
everything, or just some parts of that when using "meaning" depends on
the context (although I don't think I have seen it used for syntax only).


- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl
anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/

Post a followup to this message

Return to the comp.compilers page.
Search the comp.compilers archives again.