Paper: Semantics of meta-logic in an algebra of programs (at LICS 1994)

Authors: Antonio Brogi Franco Turini

Abstract

Meta-programming is a powerful technique for extending and modifying the semantics of an existing object language. Along with the expressiveness, however, meta-programming puts forth some subtle semantic problems, among which the most critical is bound to the representation of object programs at the meta-level. We propose a semantic justification for a simple representation technique in the field of a generalised notion of meta-programming in logic. The generalisation consists in specifying the meta-programs with respect to object programs defined by program expressions. The expressions are defined via a rich suite of operations on logic programs. The technique allows one to build straightforward and concise meta-programs via the representation of object level variables by meta-level variables

BibTeX

  @InProceedings{BrogiTurini-Semanticsofmetalogi,
    author = 	 {Antonio Brogi and Franco Turini},
    title = 	 {Semantics of meta-logic in an algebra of programs},
    booktitle =  {Proceedings of the Ninth Annual IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (LICS 1994)},
    year =	 {1994},
    month =	 {July}, 
    pages =      {262--270},
    location =   {Paris, France}, 
    publisher =	 {IEEE Computer Society Press}
  }