Abstract

VESPER is a denotational formalism, that is, a collection of expressions each of which denotes some entity. Its logic, when viewed at the topmost level, is given by a single simplification function. The simplification is vertically extended in the sense that in a single act of simplification an expression and (simultaneously) all or most of its subexpressions are recast into a simpler form. All VESPER computations are reductions to normal form, in which the simplification function is iterated on a given expression until it has no further effect. Expressions are by definition in normal form if they are fixed points of the simplification function. This work was partly supported by Goran Gustafssons Stiftelse and the Swedish Research Council for Engineering Sciences (TFR) under grants 93:38 and 94-939, respectively. 1 Introduction VESPER 1 is a denotational formalism, that is, a collection of expressions each of which denotes some entity. Its logic, when viewed at the topmost level...

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