---
title: "Derived Semantics for Some Programming Language Constructs"
authors:
  - "Peter Henderson"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1971/51"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1971/0051.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1971
pages: "490-495"
track: ""
keywords:
---

# Derived Semantics for Some Programming Language Constructs

Peter Henderson

*Proceedings of the Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 490-495.

## Abstract

Some familiar programming language constructs are described and an implementation for a hypothetical computing device is given. The semantics of the object language are described as mappings of the internal states of this deYice. By compounding the sequence of mappings corresponding to the translation of a source phrase, the semantics of the source phrase can be derived as a complex mapping. The recursive nature of the syntax of the source language requires an inductive approach to this deriYation. If the derived semantics are acceptabl e then the implementation can be regarded as correct in an informal sense.