Taxonomy/supplement/Multiple semantics
Uit Werkplaats
< Taxonomy | supplement
The semantics of a →formal language maps expressions unambiguously into some mathematical space. A language can have multiple semantics.
Example
Here are some examples for what in a formal language the expression
3*4
could 'mean':
- the product of 3 and 4, viz.
mult(3, 4) WHERE mult := ...
Note that that is not the same as the number 7. In a specification, the customer may want to see the 3 and the 4 because she can relate these to the original problem, while she does not necessarily unterstand what the number 7 has to do with it.
- the result of this multiplication: the natural numer 7, viz.
0'''''''
- the bit pattern:
00000000000000000000000000000111
in a 32 bit computer
- the machine program obtained by assembling:
PUSH 3; PUSH 4; MULT
- the blueprint of a circuit feeding some representation of the numbers 3 and 4 into a multiplication chip, viz.:
+----+ 3-| | |mult|--- 4-| | +----+