A Rational Deconstruction of Landin's SECD Machine

Landin's SECD machine was the first abstract machine for the lambda-calculus viewed as a programming language. Both theoretically as a model of computation and practically as an idealized implementation, it has set the tone for the subsequent development of abstract machines for functional programming languages. However, and even though variants of the SECD machine have been presented, derived, and invented, the precise rationale for its architecture and modus operandi has remained elusive. In this article, we deconstruct the SECD machine into a lambda-interpreter, i.e., an evaluation function, and we reconstruct lambda-interpreters into a variety of SECD-like machines. The deconstruction and reconstructions are transformational: they are based on equational reasoning and on a combination of simple program transformations--mainly closure conversion, transformation into continuation-passing style, and defunctionalization. The evaluation function underlying the SECD machine provides a precise rationale for its architecture: it is an environment-based eval-apply evaluator with a callee-save strategy for the environment, a data stack of intermediate results, and a control delimiter. Each of the components of the SECD machine (stack, environment, control, and dump) is therefore rationalized and so are its transitions. The deconstruction and reconstruction method also applies to other abstract machines and other evaluation functions. It makes it possible to systematically extract the denotational content of an abstract machine in the form of a compositional evaluation function, and the (small-step) operational content of an evaluation function in the form of an abstract machine

A Rational Deconstruction of Landin's SECD Machine with the J Operator

Landin's SECD machine was the first abstract machine for applicative expressions, i.e., functional programs. Landin's J operator was the first control operator for functional languages, and was specified by an extension of the SECD machine. We present a family of evaluation functions corresponding to this extension of the SECD machine, using a series of elementary transformations (transformation into continu-ation-passing style (CPS) and defunctionalization, chiefly) and their left inverses (transformation into direct style and refunctionalization). To this end, we modernize the SECD machine into a bisimilar one that operates in lockstep with the original one but that (1) does not use a data stack and (2) uses the caller-save rather than the callee-save convention for environments. We also identify that the dump component of the SECD machine is managed in a callee-save way. The caller-save counterpart of the modernized SECD machine precisely corresponds to Thielecke's double-barrelled continuations and to Felleisen's encoding of J in terms of call/cc. We then variously characterize the J operator in terms of CPS and in terms of delimited-control operators in the CPS hierarchy. As a byproduct, we also present several reduction semantics for applicative expressions with the J operator, based on Curien's original calculus of explicit substitutions. These reduction semantics mechanically correspond to the modernized versions of the SECD machine and to the best of our knowledge, they provide the first syntactic theories of applicative expressions with the J operator

Formal semantics for LIPS (Language for Implementing Parallel/distributed Systems)

This thesis presents operational semantics and an abstract machine for a point-to-point asynchronous message passing language called LIPS (Language for Implementing Parallel/ distributed Systems). One of the distinctive features of LIPS is its capability to handle computation and communication independently. Taking advantage of this capability, a two steps strategy has been adopted to define the operational semantics. The two steps are as follows: • A big-step semantics with single-step re-writes is used to relate the expressions and their evaluated results (computational part of LIPS). • The developed big-step semantics has been extended with Structural Operational Semantics (SOS) to describe the asynchronous message passing of LIPS (communication part of LIPS). The communication in LIPS has been implemented using Asynchronous Message Passing System (AMPS). It makes use of very simple data structures and avoids the use of buffers. While operational semantics is used to specify the meaning of programs, abstract machines are used to provide intermediate representation of the language's implementation. LIPS Abstract Machine (LAM) is defined to execute LIPS programs. The correctness of the execution of the LIPS program/expression written using the operational semantics is verified by comparing it with its equivalent code generated using the abstract machine. Specification of Asynchronous Communicating Systems (SACS) is a process algebra developed to specify the communication in LIPS programs. It is an asynchronous variant of Synchronous Calculus of Communicating Systems (SCCS). This research presents the SOS for SACS and looks at the bisimulation equivalence properties for SACS which can be used to verify the behaviour of a specified process. An implementation is said to be complete when it is equivalent to its specifications. SACS has been used for the high level specification of the communication part of LIPS programs and is implemented using AMPS. This research proves that SACS and AMPS are equivalent by defining a weak bisimulation equivalence relation between the SOS of both SACS and AMPS

Conception d'un noyau de vérification de preuves pour le λΠ-calcul modulo

In recent years, the emergence of feature rich and mature interactive proof assistants has enabled large formalization efforts of high-profile conjectures and results previously established only by pen and paper. A medley of incompatible and philosophically diverging logics are at the core of all these proof assistants. Cousineau and Dowek (2007) have proposed the λΠ-calculus modulo as a universal target framework for other front-end proof languages and environments. We explain in this thesis how this particularly simple formalism allows for a small, modular and efficient proof checker upon which the consistency of entire systems can be made to rely upon. Proofs increasingly rely on computation both in the large, as exemplified by the proof of the four colour theorem by Gonthier (2007), and in the small following the SSReflect methodoly and supporting tools. Encoding proofs from other systems in the λΠ-calculus modulo bakes yet more computation into the proof terms. We show how to make the proof checking problem manageable by turning entire proof terms into functional programs and compiling them in one go using off-the-shelf compilers for standard programming languages. We use untyped normalization by evaluation (NbE) as an enabling technology and show how to optimize previous instances of it found in the literature. Through a single change to the interpretation of proof terms, we arrive at a representation of proof terms using higher order abstract syntax (HOAS) allowing for a proof checking algorithm devoid of any explicit typing context for all Pure Type Systems (PTS). We observe that this novel algorithm is a generalization to dependent types of a type checking algorithm found in the HOL proof assistants enabling on-the-fly checking of proofs. We thus arrive at a purely functional system with no explicit state, where all proofs are checked by construction. We formally verify in Coq the correspondence of the type system on higher order terms lying behind this algorithm with respect to the standard typing rules for PTS. This line of work can be seen as connecting two historic strands of proof assistants: LCF and its descendents, where proofs of untyped or simply typed formulae are checked by construction, versus Automath and its descendents, where proofs of dependently typed terms are checked a posteriori. The algorithms presented in this thesis are at the core of a new proof checker called Dedukti and in some cases have been transferred to the more mature platform that is Coq. In joint work with Denes, we show how to extend the untyped NbE algorithm to the syntax and reduction rules of the Calculus of Inductive Constructions (CIC). In joint work with Burel, we generalize previous work by Cousineau and Dowek (2007) on the embedding into the λΠ-calculus modulo of a large class of PTS to inductive types, pattern matching and fixpoint operators.Ces dernières années ont vu l'émergence d'assistants interactifs de preuves riches en fonctionnalités et d'une grande maturité d'implémentation, ce qui a permis l'essor des grosses formalisations de résultats papier et la résolution de conjectures célèbres. Mais autant d'assistants de preuves reposent sur presque autant de logiques comme fondements théoriques. Cousineau et Dowek (2007) proposent le λΠ-calcul modulo comme un cadre universel cible pour tous ces environnement de démonstration. Nous montrons dans cette thèse comment ce formalisme particulièrement simple admet une implémentation d'un vérificateur de taille modeste mais pour autant modulaire et efficace, à la correction de laquelle on peut réduire la cohérence de systèmes tout entiers. Un nombre croissant de preuves dépendent de calculs intensifs comme dans la preuve du théorème des quatre couleurs de Gonthier (2007). Les méthodologies telles que SSReflect et les outils attenants privilégient les preuves contenant de nombreux petits calculs plutôt que les preuves purement déductives. L'encodage de preuves provenant d'autres systèmes dans le λΠ-calcul modulo introduit d'autres calculs encore. Nous montrons comment gérer la taille de ces calculs en interprétant les preuves tout entières comme des programmes fonctionnels, que l'on peut compiler vers du code machine à l'aide de compilateurs standards et clé-en-main. Nous employons pour cela une variante non typée de la normalisation par évaluation (NbE), et montrons comment optimiser de précédentes formulation de celle-ci. Au travers d'une seule petite modification à l'interprétation des termes de preuves, nous arrivons aussi à une représentation des preuves en syntaxe abstraite d'ordre supérieur (HOAS), qui admet naturellement un algorithme de typage sans aucun contexte de typage explicite. Nous généralisons cet algorithme à tous les systèmes de types purs (PTS). Nous observons que cet algorithme est une extension à un cadre avec types dépendants de l'algorithme de typage des assistants de preuves de la famille HOL. Cette observation nous amène à développer une architecture à la LCF pour une large classe de PTS, c'est à dire une architecture où tous les termes de preuves sont corrects par construction, a priori donc, et n'ont ainsi pas besoin d'être vérifié a posteriori. Nous prouvons formellement en Coq un théorème de correspondance entre les système de types sans contexte et leur pendant standard avec contexte explicite. Ces travaux jettent un pont entre deux lignées historiques d'assistants de preuves : la lignée issue de LCF à qui nous empruntons l'architecture du noyau, et celle issue de Automath, dont nous héritons la notion de types dépendants. Les algorithmes présentés dans cette thèse sont au coeur d'un nouveau vérificateur de preuves appelé Dedukti et ont aussi été transférés vers un système plus mature : Coq. En collaboration avec Dénès, nous montrons comment étendre la NbE non typée pour gérer la syntaxe et les règles de réduction du calcul des constructions inductives (CIC). En collaboration avec Burel, nous généralisons des travaux précédents de Cousineau et Dowek (2007) sur l'encodage dans le λΠ-calcul modulo d'une large classe de PTS à des PTS avec types inductifs, motifs de filtrage et opérateurs de point fixe