The Rooster and the Syntactic Bracket

We propose an extension of pure type systems with an algebraic presentation of inductive and co-inductive type families with proper indices. This type theory supports coercions toward from smaller sorts to bigger sorts via explicit type construction, as well as impredicative sorts. Type families in impredicative sorts are constructed with a bracketing operation. The necessary restrictions of pattern-matching from impredicative sorts to types are confined to the bracketing construct. This type theory gives an alternative presentation to the calculus of inductive constructions on which the Coq proof assistant is an implementation.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Types for Proofs and Program

Proof-irrelevant model of CC with predicative induction and judgmental equality

We present a set-theoretic, proof-irrelevant model for Calculus of Constructions (CC) with predicative induction and judgmental equality in Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with an axiom for countably many inaccessible cardinals. We use Aczel's trace encoding which is universally defined for any function type, regardless of being impredicative. Direct and concrete interpretations of simultaneous induction and mutually recursive functions are also provided by extending Dybjer's interpretations on the basis of Aczel's rule sets. Our model can be regarded as a higher-order generalization of the truth-table methods. We provide a relatively simple consistency proof of type theory, which can be used as the basis for a theorem prover

Algebraic properties of structured context-free languages: old approaches and novel developments

The historical research line on the algebraic properties of structured CF languages initiated by McNaughton's Parenthesis Languages has recently attracted much renewed interest with the Balanced Languages, the Visibly Pushdown Automata languages (VPDA), the Synchronized Languages, and the Height-deterministic ones. Such families preserve to a varying degree the basic algebraic properties of Regular languages: boolean closure, closure under reversal, under concatenation, and Kleene star. We prove that the VPDA family is strictly contained within the Floyd Grammars (FG) family historically known as operator precedence. Languages over the same precedence matrix are known to be closed under boolean operations, and are recognized by a machine whose pop or push operations on the stack are purely determined by terminal letters. We characterize VPDA's as the subclass of FG having a peculiarly structured set of precedence relations, and balanced grammars as a further restricted case. The non-counting invariance property of FG has a direct implication for VPDA too.Comment: Extended version of paper presented at WORDS2009, Salerno,Italy, September 200

Generating Bijections between HOAS and the Natural Numbers

A provably correct bijection between higher-order abstract syntax (HOAS) and the natural numbers enables one to define a "not equals" relationship between terms and also to have an adequate encoding of sets of terms, and maps from one term family to another. Sets and maps are useful in many situations and are preferably provided in a library of some sort. I have released a map and set library for use with Twelf which can be used with any type for which a bijection to the natural numbers exists. Since creating such bijections is tedious and error-prone, I have created a "bijection generator" that generates such bijections automatically together with proofs of correctness, all in the context of Twelf.Comment: In Proceedings LFMTP 2010, arXiv:1009.218

For Finitary Induction-Induction, Induction is Enough

Inductive-inductive types (IITs) are a generalisation of inductive types in type theory. They allow the mutual definition of types with multiple sorts where later sorts can be indexed by previous ones. An example is the Chapman-style syntax of type theory with conversion relations for each sort where e.g. the sort of types is indexed by contexts. In this paper we show that if a model of extensional type theory (ETT) supports indexed W-types, then it supports finitely branching IITs. We use a small internal type theory called the theory of signatures to specify IITs. We show that if a model of ETT supports the syntax for the theory of signatures, then it supports all IITs. We construct this syntax from indexed W-types using preterms and typing relations and prove its initiality following Streicher. The construction of the syntax and its initiality proof were formalised in Agda