This project investigates the analysis and classification of the semantics definitions of programming languages. This is done, first, by analyzing and relating models of the ``core'' of a programming language. Next, extensions of the core language, incorporating features such as naming, parameterization, and encapsulation constructs, are analyzed for their harmony (correspondence) and orthogonality, and models of these extensions are related to each other and to models of the core language.
The ultimate goal is a ``design and analysis workbench'' for programming languages, in which a language can be synthesized, classified, and prototyped. Besides aiding a language designer in shaping a new programming language, the workbench will also provide experimental evidence that languages designed with the formal criteria and characterizations uncovered by the research have pragmatically clean and correct implementations.