WG14/N899 (1999-10-19) Subject: Draft text for an NP on Formal Semantics of Expressions Source: Clive Feather Status: For discussion at the October WG14 meeting. This text has not been presented to the UK C Panel. 1. Title Formal Semantics of Expressions 2. Scope To define a formalism for the semantics of expressions in the C language (as defined in ISO/IEC 9899:1999) to enable users of the Standard to determine unambiguously what expressions do or do not conform to the language and their level of conformance. 3. Purpose and Justification In the C standard the semantics of correct expressions are well-defined, but the rules for which expressions are "undefined", "unspecified", or "implementation-defined" are not expressed clearly. It is proposed to establish a new project to produce a Technical Report (type 2) which would describe clear rules for this area of the standard, in such a form that it could easily be added to the standard as a normative annex. The project also includes the production of the text for a Rationale document (either separate or as part of the project document). 4. Program of Work A Technical Report (type 2) will be developed for this project. 5. Relevant documents to be considered ISO/IEC 9899:1999 - Programming Language C 6. Cooperation and liaison All ISO/IEC JTC1/SC22 working groups that have an interest in this area. 7. Preparatory work offered with target date(s) A Technical Report (type 2) will be ready for registration 12 months after the approval of the project by JTC1.