Vienna Definition Language

Vienna definition language

[vē′en·ə ‚def·ə′nish·ən ‚laŋ·gwij]

(computer science)

A language for defining the syntax and semantics of programming languages; consists of a syntactic metalanguage for defining the syntax of programming and data structures, and a semantic metalanguage which specifies programming language semantics operationally in terms of the computations to which programs give rise during execution.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Vienna Definition Language

(VDL) IBM Vienna Labs. A language for formal, algebraic definition via operational semantics. Used to specify the semantics of PL/I. See also VDM.

["The Vienna Definition Language", P. Wegner, ACM Comp Surveys 4(1):5-63 (Mar 1972)].

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