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From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) : [ foldoc ]
operational semantics
A set of rules specifying how the state of an actual
or hypothetical computer changes while executing a program.
The overall state is typically divided into a number of
components, e.g. stack, heap, registers etc. Each rule
specifies certain preconditions on the contents of some
components and their new contents after the application of the
rule.
It is similar in spirit to the notion of a Turing machine,
in which actions are precisely described in a mathematical
way.
Compuare axiomatic semantics, denotational semantics.
(1996-08-21)