A formalization of expression semantics for an executable modeling language

Proposes a method for formally specifying an executable modeling language's (EML's) expression sublanguage. We demonstrate the method in terms of a generic executable modeling language called GEML that is representative of a number of existing algebraic EMLs, including AMPL, GAMS, LINGO, and SML. Formalizing EML expression semantics is important for a number of reasons: semantic formalization enables certain kinds of EML implementation algorithms to be proved correct, can help reduce modeling errors, enables model portability, and may serve to bring greater focus to some issues of modeling language design.>