[TYPES/announce] Fwd: Annual Peter Landin Semantics Seminar: On correspondences between programming languages and semantic notations, By Prof.Peter Mosses -- 8th December, 2014, 6pm, London

[Paul Levy]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Paul Boca <paul.boca at googlemail.com>
> Date: Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 9:40 PM
> Subject: Annual Peter Landin Semantics Seminar: On correspondences
> between programming languages and semantic notations, By Prof.Peter
> Mosses -- 8th December, 2014, 6pm, London
> To: facs-events at jiscmail.ac.uk, facs at jiscmail.ac.uk,
> fmnet at jiscmail.ac.uk, fortest at jiscmail.ac.uk, procos at jiscmail.ac.uk
> Cc: Peter Mosses <P.D.Mosses at swansea.ac.uk>, "Tony N. Clark"
> <t.n.clark at mdx.ac.uk>
>
>
> (Apologies if you receive multiple copies of this announcement)
>
>            BCS FACS - Annual Peter Landin Semantics Seminar
>
>
> On correspondences between programming languages and semantic  
> notations
>
>                    By Prof Peter Mosses (Swansea University)
>
>
>                        Date/Time: 8th December 2014, 6pm
>
>
> Venue: BCS, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street,
> London, WC2E 7HA | Maps
>
> Cost to attend: **Free of charge**, but, please book your place via  
> the
> BCS online booking system:
>
>                             https://events.bcs.org/book/1170/
>
>
> Peter Landin (1930 - 2009) was a pioneer whose ideas underpin modern
> computing. In the the 1950s and 1960s, Landin showed that programs
> could be defined in terms of mathematical functions, translated into
> functional expressions in the lambda calculus, and their meaning
> calculated with an abstract mathematical machine. Compiler writers
> and designers of modern-day programming languages alike owe much
> to Landin's pioneering work.
>
> Each year, a leading figure in computer science will pay tribute to
> Landin's contribution to computing through a public seminar. This
> year's seminar is entitled "On correspondences between programming
> languages and semantic notations" and will be given by
> Prof. Peter Mosses (Swansea University).
>
> Programme
> ========
>
> 5.15pm               Tea/Coffee
>
>
> 6.00pm               Welcome & Introduction (Professor Tony Clark,
> Middlesex University)
>
> 6.05pm               Peter Landin Semantics Seminar
>
>                         On correspondences between programming
> languages and semantic notations
>
>                                          Prof Peter Mosses
>
>                                        (Swansea University)
>
> 7.20pm -8.30pm   Drinks Reception
>
>
> Seminar details
> ===========
>
> 50 years ago, at the IFIP Working Conference on Formal Language
> Description Languages, Peter Landin presented a paper on “A formal
> description of ALGOL 60”. In it, he explained “a correspondence  
> between
> certain features of current programming languages and a modified form
> of Church’s λ-notation”, and suggested using that as the basis  
> for formal
> semantics. He regarded his formal description of ALGOL 60 as a  
> “compiler”
> from ALGOL abstract syntax to λ-notation.
>
> 10 years later, denotational semantics was well established, and two
> denotational descriptions of ALGOL 60 had been produced as case
> studies: one in the VDM style developed at IBM-Vienna, the other in  
> the
> continuations-based style adopted in Christopher Strachey’s  
> Programming
> Research Group at Oxford.
>
> After recalling Landin’s approach, I’ll illustrate how it differs  
> from
> denotational semantics, based on the ALGOL 60 descriptions. I’ll  
> also
> present a recently developed component-based semantics for ALGOL 60,
> involving its translation to an open-ended collection of so-called  
> fundamental
> constructs. I’ll assume familiarity with the main concepts of
> denotational semantics.

--
Paul Blain Levy
School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham
+44 121 414 4792
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pbl