A Hierarchy of SOS Rule Formats

A Hierarchy of SOS Rule Formats

In 1981 Structural Operational Semantics (SOS) was introduced as a systematic way to define operational semantics of programming languages by a set of rules of a certain shape [62]. Subsequently, the format of SOS rules became the object of study. Using so-called Transition System Specifications (TSS’s) several authors syntactically restricted the format of rules and showed several useful prope...

SOS Rule Formats for Parameterized and State-Bearing Processes

SOS Rule Formats for Idempotent Terms and Idempotent Unary Operators

A unary operator f is idempotent if the equation f(x) = f(f(x)) holds. On the other end, an element a of an algebra is said to be an idempotent for a binary operator if a = a a. This paper presents a rule format for Structural Operational Semantics that guarantees that a unary operator be idempotent modulo bisimilarity. The proposed rule format relies on a companion one ensuring that certain te...

SOS rule formats for convex and abstract probabilistic bisimulations

Probabilistic transition system specifications (PTSSs) in the ntμfθ/ntμxθ format provide structural operational semantics for Segala-type systems that exhibit both probabilistic and nondeterministic behavior and guarantee that bisimilarity is a congruence for all operator defined in such format. Starting from the ntμfθ/ntμxθ, we obtain restricted formats that guarantee that three coarser bisimu...

SOS rule formats for zero and unit elements

This paper proposes rule formats for Structural Operational Semantics guaranteeing that certain constants act as left or right unit/zero elements for a set of binary operators. Examples of left and right zero, as well as unit, elements from the literature are shown to fit the rule formats offered in this study.