Context
I'm designing a language which implements lambda calculus and (first-order) predicate calculus, where lambdas behave as the abstraction encapsulating logic, compositionally forming a computational model for higher-order logic.
Question
How does one, in general, choose between operational, denotational, and axiomatic semantics? I understand the way in which they describe the semantics for some language specification, and I understand they're often mixed (particularly operational semantics with one of the other two), but I'm not sure how to best identify the right formal semantics to use in general. I've seen lambda calculus expressed in both operational and denotational semantics (purely), for instance. I'm currently favoring denotational semantics for my project. But I would like to know how to identify whether this is the right choice for this project and others in the future.
I've read that denotational semantics is useful in source-to-source translation, which is what I'm thinking of doing: either writing an interpreter or a transpiler (source-to-source compiler), which translates the code into C++ and allow a C++ compiler handle the compilation into machine code. The idea is that I can make use of lambdas in C++ (since C++11), as they are standard/portable and rigorous. I'm leaning towards the compiler currently. Or might this not be a good idea? I may write something better later on with LLVM or GNU Lightning.
An additional question (if anyone can answer this as well, that would be great!)
I understand how environments / environment functions are necessary when interpreting a language that needs to keep track of variables and such, but is it necessary/applicable for a compiler? If so, how would the environment be best expressed/implemented if I were to compile to C++? By environment, I mean the set of paired values which map identifiers to values.
