Docentship lecture - Elias Castegren: "What is the Meaning of Programming Language Semantics?"

• Chairperson: professor Stefanos Kaxiras
• Representative of the Docentship Committee: professor Nataša Sladoje
• Follow via Zoom: https://uu-se.zoom.us/my/elias.castegren

Abstract: When you write a program in some programming language you have at least some expectation of what that program will do when it runs. What the program actually does, however, depends on the semantics of the programming language. All programming languages have some semantics, whether written down or incidental, which dictates which programs are allowed in that language and what happens when they run. Anyone who has written a program knows that it is not always straightforward: one's understanding of a programming language is often informal and this understanding may be incomplete or incorrect. The implementation of the programming language itself may contain bugs and the specification of the program one is implementing may be ambiguous.

The field of programming language semantics provides tools for expressing the meaning of programming languages formally and unambiguously. It provides the foundation for techniques such as formal verification and static analysis. This lecture will give an overview of programming language semantics and discuss some of its applications.

The lecture is an obligatory teaching test for those applying for admittance as docent and it should be possible for students and others with basic academic education in the relevant field to follow it. The lecture lasts 40-45 minutes with subsequent discussion. The lecture will be given in English.

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