JUCS - Journal of Universal Computer Science 13(6): 891-919, doi: 10.3217/jucs-013-06-0891
Using Visitor Patterns in Object-Oriented Action Semantics
expand article infoAndré Murbach Maidl‡, Claudio Carvilhe§, Martin A. Musicante|
‡ Federal University of Paraná, Brazil§ Catholic University of Parana, Brazil| Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Corresponding author: André Maidl ( murbach@inf.ufpr.br )

© André Maidl, Claudio Carvilhe, Martin Musicante.
This article is freely available under the J.UCS Open Content License.
Citation: Maidl AM, Carvilhe C, Musicante MA (2007) Using Visitor Patterns in Object-Oriented Action Semantics. JUCS - Journal of Universal Computer Science 13(6): 891-919. https://doi.org/10.3217/jucs-013-06-0891
Open Access
Abstract
Object-Oriented Action Semantics is a semantic framework for the definition of programming languages. The framework incorporates some object-oriented concepts to the Action Semantics formalism. Its main goal is to obtain more readable and reusable semantic specifications. ObjectOriented Action Semantics provides support for the definition of syntax-independent specifications, due to the way its classes are written. In a previous work, a library of classes (called LFL) was developed to improve specification reuse and to provide a way to describe semantic concepts, independent from the syntax of the programming language. This paper aims to address some problematic aspects of LFL, and presents a case study, where a specification is built by using the Visitor Pattern technique. The use of this pattern allows a clear separation between the syntax of a programming language and its different semantic aspects.
Keywords
formal semantics, action semantics, object-oriented