You probably want to bring up other forms of semantics.
Axiomatic semantics:
Makes no distinction between a phrase's meaning and the logical
formulas that describe it; its meaning is exactly what can be proven
about it in some logic.
Operational semantics:
The execution of the language is described directly (rather than by
translation).
Operational semantics loosely corresponds to "interpretation".
Can be defined via syntactic transformations on phrases of the
language itself.
Denotational semantics:
each phrase in the language is translated into a denotation, i.e. a
phrase in some other language. Denotational semantics loosely
corresponds to "compilation", although the "target language" is
usually a mathematical formalism rather than another computer language.
Above from Wikipedia.
Quoting David Sankel <[email protected]>:
Hello All,
I've recently had the opportunity to explain in prose what denotational
semantics are to a person unfamiliar with it. I was trying to get across the
concept of distilling the essence out of some problem domain. I wasn't able
to get the idea across so I'm looking for some simple ways to explain it.
Does anyone know of a way to explain what's the meaning and objective of
"distilling the essence" without introducing more jargon. One thing that
comes to mind is how Newton's equations for gravity were a distillation of
the essence of the way things fall.
Thanks in advance,
David
--
David Sankel
Sankel Software
www.sankelsoftware.com
_______________________________________________
Haskell-Cafe mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe
