Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Action Semantics AS ’ 99 Amsterdam , The Netherlands , March 21 , 1999

In the present paper, a methodology is presented which enables the implementation of the Action Notation formalism based on a formal and modular specification. As a result, an interpreter and debugger is automatically generated which allows the visualization of an Action Notation program execution and the inspection of all semantic identities in terms of the given formal specification. These results are based on several new concepts. At first, a formal description of Action Notation is provided by means of Montages. Montages are a semi-visual formalism for the specification of syntax and semantics of programming languages. Moreover, the structuring of Action Notation via facets is refined and used to define a new specification architecture that ensures the required modularity. The tool support for Montages (Gem-Mex) automatically generates a prototypical implementation from the language’s Montages specification.