Aim: Structural operational semantics (SOS) provides a framework for giving operational semantics to programming and specification languages. A growing number of programming languages from commercial and academic spheres have been given usable semantic descriptions by means of structural operational semantics. Because of its intuitive appeal and flexibility, structural operational semantics has found considerable application in the study of the semantics of concurrent processes. Moreover, it is becoming a viable alternative to denotational semantics in the static analysis of programs, and in proving compiler correctness.
Recently, structural operational semantics has been successfully applied as a formal tool to establish results that hold for classes of process description languages. This has allowed for the generalisation of well-known results in the field of process algebra, and for the development of a meta-theory for process calculi based on the realization that many of the results in this field only depend upon general semantic properties of language constructs.
This workshop aims at being a forum for researchers, students and practitioners interested in new developments, and directions for future investigation, in the field of structural operational semantics.
One of the specific goals of the workshop is to establish synergies between the concurrency and programming language communities working on the theory and practice of SOS. Moreover, it aims at widening the knowledge of SOS among postgraduate students and young researchers worldwide.
Specific topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
* programming languages
* process algebras
* higher-order formalisms
* rule formats for operational specifications
* meaning of operational specifications
* comparisons between denotational, axiomatic and SOS
* compositionality of modal logics with respect to
operational specifications
* congruence with respect to behavioural equivalences
* conservative extensions
* derivation of proof rules from operational specifications
* software tools that automate, or are based on, SOS.