Abstract

The manipulation of objects with state which changes over time is allpervasive in computing. Perhaps the simplest example of such objects are the program variables of classical imperative languages. An important strand of work within the study of such languages, pioneered by John Reynolds, focusses on "Idealized Algol", an elegant synthesis of imperative and functional features. We present a novel semantics for Idealized Algol using games, which is quite unlike traditional denotational models of state. The model takes into account the irreversibility of changes in state, and makes explicit the difference between copying and sharing of entities. As a formal measure of the accuracy of our model, we obtain a full abstraction theorem for Idealized Algol with active expressions.

Citations