Practical Type Inference for the GADT Type System

Generalized algebraic data types (GADTs) are a type system extension to algebraic data types that allows the type of an algebraic data value to vary with its shape. The GADT type system allows programmers to express detailed program properties as types (for example, that a function should return a list of the same length as its input), and a general-purpose type checker will automatically check those properties at compile time. Type inference for the GADT type system and the properties of the type system are both currently areas of active research. In this dissertation, I attack both problems simultaneously by exploiting the symbiosis between type system research and type inference research. Deficiencies of GADT type inference algorithms motivate research on specific aspects of the type system, and discoveries about the type system bring in new insights that lead to improved GADT type inference algorithms. The technical contributions of this dissertation are therefore twofold: in addition to new GADT type system properties (such as the prevalence of pointwise type information flow in GADT patterns, a generalized notion of existential types, and the effects of enforcing the GADT branch reachability requirement), I will also present a new GADT type inference algorithm that is significantly more powerful than existing algorithms. These contributions should help programmers use the GADT type system more effectively, and they should also enable language implementers to provide better support for the GADT type system

Characterizing Implementations that Preserve Properties of Concurrent Randomized Algorithms

We show that correctness criteria of concurrent algorithms are mathematically equivalent to the existence of so-called simulations between implementations of the algorithms in a well-known framework (that of input/output automata) and simple canonical automata. This equivalence allows us to frame our proofs of correctness in a language much more amenable to machine-checking than conventional proofs. We give the first demonstration that when strongly linearizable implementations of randomized concurrent algorithms are utilized, then the distributions of a well-defined class of random variables are preserved under object substitution by non-concurrent implementations of the same algorithms. We also consider weaker conditions than strong linearizability under which implementations are still correct in the presence of randomization

A friendly notebook on Data Structures and Algorithms

The purpose of this document is to provide study material that can be used for independent study by the students of the subject ’Data Structures and Algorithms’. We have tried to write it in a student-friendly way that encourages students to learn as well as enjoy. The document reviews the main concepts of the subject providing clear examples to help students. Each chapter also proposes a set of exercises to reinforce students’ knowledge

The imperative implementation of algebraic data types

The synthesis of imperative programs for hierarchical, algebraically specified abstract data types is investigated. Two aspects of the synthesis are considered: the choice of data structures for efficient implementation, and the synthesis of linked implementations for the class of ADTs which insert and access data without explicit key. The methodology is based on an analysis of the algebraic semantics of the ADT. Operators are partitioned according to the behaviour of their corresponding operations in the initial algebra. A family of relations, the storage relations of an ADT, Is defined. They depend only on the operator partition and reflect an observational view of the ADT. The storage relations are extended to storage graphs: directed graphs with a subset of nodes designated for efficient access. The data structures in our imperative language are chosen according to properties of the storage relations and storage graphs. Linked implementations are synthesised in a stepwise manner by implementing the given ADT first by its storage graphs, and then by linked data structures in the imperative language. Some circumstances under which the resulting programs have constant time complexity are discussed

Verifying algorithms and data structures in Dafny

Trabajo de Fin de Grado en Ingeniería Informática y Matemáticas (Universidad Complutense, Facultad de Informática, curso 2015/2016)La verificación formal de un programa es la demostración de que este funciona de acuerdo a una descripción del comportamiento esperado en toda posible ejecución. La especificación de lo deseado puede utilizar técnicas diversas y entrar en mayor o menor detalle, pero para ganarse el título de formal esta ha de ser matemáticamente rigurosa. El estudio y ejercicio manual de alguna de esas técnicas forma parte del currículo común a los estudios de grado de la Facultad de Informática y del itinerario de Ciencias de la Computación de la Facultad de Ciencias Matemáticas de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, como es el caso de la verificación con pre- y postcondiciones o lógica de Hoare. En el presente trabajo se explora la automatización de estos métodos mediante el lenguaje y verificador Dafny, con el que se especifican y verifican algoritmos y estructuras de datos de diversa complejidad. Dafny es un lenguaje de programación diseñado para integrar la especificación y permitir la verificación automática de sus programas, con la ayuda del programador y de un demostrador de teoremas en la sombra. Dafny es un proyecto en desarrollo activo aunque suficientemente maduro, que genera programas ejecutables.The formal verification of a program is the proof that it works according to a description of its expected behaviour in any possible execution. The specification of what is desired can use different techniques and go into more or less detail, but to win the formal title it must be mathematically rigorous. The study and manual exercise of some of those techniques is part of the common curriculum of the degree studies at the School of Computer Science and of the Computer Science itinerary at the School of Mathematics at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, such as verification with pre- and postconditions or Hoare logic. In the current work, the automation of those methods is explored through the language and verifier Dafny, with has been used to specify and verify some algorithms and data structures of diverse complexity. Dafny is a programming language designed to integrate specification and allow automatic verification of its programs, with the help of the programmer and a theorem prover in the shade. Dafny is in active development but mature enough and it generates executable programs.Depto. de Sistemas Informáticos y ComputaciónFac. de InformáticaTRUEunpu

Genetic Programming + Proof Search = Automatic Improvement

Search Based Software Engineering techniques are emerging as important tools for software maintenance. Foremost among these is Genetic Improvement, which has historically applied the stochastic techniques of Genetic Programming to optimize pre-existing program code. Previous work in this area has not generally preserved program semantics and this article describes an alternative to the traditional mutation operators used, employing deterministic proof search in the sequent calculus to yield semantics-preserving transformations on algebraic data types. Two case studies are described, both of which are applicable to the recently-introduced `grow and graft' technique of Genetic Improvement: the first extends the expressiveness of the `grafting' phase and the second transforms the representation of a list data type to yield an asymptotic efficiency improvement

A Sound and Complete Proof Technique for Linearizability of Concurrent Data Structures

Efficient implementations of data structures such as queues, stacks or hash-tables allow for concurrent access by many processes at the same time. To increase concurrency, these algorithms often completely dispose with locking, or only lock small parts of the structure. Linearizability is the standard correctness criterion for such a scenario—where a concurrent object is linearizable if all of its operations appear to take effect instantaneously some time between their invocation and return. The potential concurrent access to the shared data structure tremendously increases the complexity of the verification problem, and thus current proof techniques for showing linearizability are all tailored to specific types of data structures. In previous work, we have shown how simulation-based proof conditions for linearizability can be used to verify a number of subtle concurrent algorithms. In this article, we now show that conditions based on backward simulation can be used to show linearizability of every linearizable algorithm, that is, we show that our proof technique is both sound and complete. We exemplify our approach by a linearizability proof of a concurrent queue, introduced in Herlihy and Wing's landmark paper on linearizability. Except for their manual proof, none of the numerous other approaches have successfully treated this queue. Our approach is supported by a full mechanisation: both the linearizability proofs for case studies like the queue, and the proofs of soundness and completeness have been carried out with an interactive prover, which is KIV