Syntax-Directed Semantics

The subject of this monograph is the use of tree transducers to study general properties of formal models for giving semantics to context-free languages. Such formal models include attribute grammars with synthesized attributes only, denotational semantics, and attribute grammars with synthesized and inherited attributes. The authors consider top-down tree transducers, macro tree transducers, attributed tree transducers, and macro attributed tree transducers. A unified terminology is used to define them, and their transformational capacities are compared. Composition and decomposition of the tree transformations induced by the transducers are investigated intensively. This handbook on tree transducers is a base for further research as well as for lecturing the subject to graduate students.