A Compiler for Natural Semantics

Natural semantics is a formalism used for specifying both semantics and implementations of programming languages. Until recently, no practical implementation of the formalism existed. We have defined the Relational Meta-Language, RML, as an executable specification language for natural semantics. After a brief outline of the language, we describe the compilation strategy used by our rml2c compiler: transformations are applied to minimize non-determinism, and a continuationpassing style form is produced and simplified. Finally the CPS is emitted as low-level C code, using an efficient technique for implementing tailcalls. We also present performance measurements that support our choice of compilation strategy.

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