Side effects and aliasing can have simple axiomatic descriptions

Abstract

We present a different style of axiomatic definition for programming languages. It is oriented toward imperative languages, such as Algol 68, that do not distinguish between statements and expressions. Rather than basing the logic on a notion of pre- or postcondition, we use the value of a programming language expression as the underlying primitive. A number of language constructs are examined in this framework. We argue that this style of definition gives us a significantly different view of the notion of “easy axiomatixability.” Side effects in expressions as well as aliasing between variables are shown to be “easily axiomatizable” in our system.