Vienna Definition Language


Vienna definition language

[vē′en·ə ‚def·ə′nish·ən ‚laŋ·gwij] (computer science) A language for defining the syntax and semantics of programming languages; consists of a syntactic metalanguage for defining the syntax of programming and data structures, and a semantic metalanguage which specifies programming language semantics operationally in terms of the computations to which programs give rise during execution.

Vienna Definition Language

(VDL) IBM Vienna Labs. A language for formal, algebraicdefinition via operational semantics. Used to specify thesemantics of PL/I. See also VDM.

["The Vienna Definition Language", P. Wegner, ACM Comp Surveys4(1):5-63 (Mar 1972)].