Behavioural reasoning for conditional equations

Object-oriented (OO) programming techniques can be applied to equational specification logics by distinguishing visible data from hidden data (that is, by distinguishing the output of methods from the objects to which the methods apply), and then focusing on the behavioural equivalence of hidden data in the sense introduced by H. Reichel in 1984. Equational specification logics structured in this way are called hidden equational logics, HELs. The central problem is how to extend the specification of a given HEL to a specification of behavioural equivalence in a computationally effective way. S. Buss and G. Roşu showed in 2000 that this is not possible in general, but much work has been done on the partial specification of behavioural equivalence for a wide class of HELs. The OO connection suggests the use of coalgebraic methods, and J. Goguen and his collaborators have developed coinductive processes that depend on an appropriate choice of a cobasis, which is a special set of contexts that generates a subset of the behavioural equivalence relation. In this paper the theoretical aspects of coinduction are investigated, specifically its role as a supplement to standard equational logic for determining behavioural equivalence. Various forms of coinduction are explored. A simple characterisation is given of those HELs that are behaviourally specifiable. Those sets of conditional equations that constitute a complete, finite cobasis for a HEL are characterised in terms of the HEL's specification. Behavioural equivalence, in the form of logical equivalence, is also an important concept for single-sorted logics, for example, sentential logics such as the classical propositional logic. The paper is an application of the methods developed through the extensive work that has been done in this area on HELs, and to a broader class of logics that encompasses both sentential logics and HELs. © 2007 Cambridge University Press.FCT via UIM

Behavioral equivalence of hidden k-logics: an abstract algebraic approach

This work advances a research agenda which has as its main aim the application of Abstract Algebraic Logic (AAL) methods and tools to the specification and verification of software systems. It uses a generalization of the notion of an abstract deductive system to handle multi-sorted deductive systems which differentiate visible and hidden sorts. Two main results of the paper are obtained by generalizing properties of the Leibniz congruence — the central notion in AAL. In this paper we discuss a question we posed in [1] about the relationship between the behavioral equivalences of equivalent hidden logics. We also present a necessary and sufficient intrinsic condition for two hidden logics to be equivalent

A short overview of Hidden Logic

In this paper we review a hidden (sorted) generalization of k-deductive systems - hidden k-logics. They encompass deductive systems as well as hidden equational logics and inequational logics. The special case of hidden equational logics has been used to specify and to verify properties in program development of behavioral systems within the dichotomy visible vs. hidden data. We recall one of the main applications of this work - the study of behavioral equivalence. Related results are obtained through combinatorial properties of the Leibniz congruence relation. In addition we obtain a few new developments concerning hidden equational logic, namely we present a new characterization of the behavioral consequences of a theory

RML: Runtime Monitoring Language

Runtime verification is a relatively new software verification technique that aims to prove the correctness of a specific run of a program, rather than statically verify the code. The program is instrumented in order to collect all the relevant information, and the resulting trace of events is inspected by a monitor that verifies its compliance with respect to a specification of the expected properties of the system under scrutiny. Many languages exist that can be used to formally express the expected behavior of a system, with different design choices and degrees of expressivity. This thesis presents RML, a specification language designed for runtime verification, with the goal of being completely modular and independent from the instrumentation and the kind of system being monitored. RML is highly expressive, and allows one to express complex, parametric, non-context-free properties concisely. RML is compiled down to TC, a lower level calculus, which is fully formalized with a deterministic, rewriting-based semantics. In order to evaluate the approach, an open source implementation has been developed, and several examples with Node.js programs have been tested. Benchmarks show the ability of the monitors automatically generated from RML specifications to effectively and efficiently verify complex properties

Stream Differential Equations: Specification Formats and Solution Methods

Streams, or innite sequences, are innite objects of a very simple type, yet they have a rich theory partly due to their ubiquity in mathematics and computer science. Stream dierential equations are a coinductive method for specifying streams and stream operations, and their theory has been developed in many papers over the past two decades. In this paper we present a survey of the many results in this area. Our focus is on the classication of dierent formats of stream dierential equations, their solution methods, and the classes of streams they can dene. Moreover, we describe in detail the connection between the so-called syntactic solution method and abstract GSOS

The productivity of polymorphic stream equations and the composition of circular traversals

This thesis has two independent parts concerned with different aspects of laziness in functional programs. The first part is a theoretical study of productivity for very restricted stream programs. In the second part we define a programming abstraction over a recursive pattern for defining circular traversals modularly. Productivity is in general undecidable. By restricting ourselves to mutually recursive polymorphic stream equations having only three basic operations, namely "head", "tail", and "cons", we aim to prove interesting properties about productivity. Still undecidable for this restricted class of programs, productivity of polymorphic stream functions is equivalent to the totality of their indexing function, which characterise their behaviour in terms of operations on indices. We prove that our equations generate all possible polymorphic stream functions, and therefore their indexing functions are all the computable functions, whose totality problem is indeed undecidable. We then further restrict our language by reducing the numbers of equations and parameters, but despite those constraints the equations retain their expressiveness. In the end we establish that even two non-mutually recursive equations on unary stream functions are undecidable with complexity $Π_2^0$. However, the productivity of a single unary equation is decidable. Circular traversals have been used in the eighties as an optimisation to combine multiple traversals in a single traversal. In particular they provide more opportunities for applying deforestation techniques since it is the case that an intermediate datastructure can only be eliminated if it is consumed only once. Another use of circular programs is in the implementation of attribute grammars in lazy functional languages. There is a systematic transformation to define a circular traversal equivalent to multiple traversals. Programming with this technique is not modular since the individual traversals are merged together. Some tools exist to transform programs automatically and attribute grammars have been suggested as a way to describe the circular traversals modularly. Going to the root of the problem, we identify a recursive pattern that allows us to define circular programs modularly in a functional style. We give two successive implementations, the first one is based on algebras and has limited scope: not all circular traversals can be defined this way. We show that the recursive scheme underlying attribute grammars computation rules is essential to combine circular programs. We implement a generic recursive operation on a novel attribute grammar abstraction, using containers as a parametric generic representation of recursive datatypes. The abstraction makes attribute grammars first-class objects. Such a strongly typed implementation is novel and make it possible to implement a high level embedded language for defining attribute grammars, with many interesting new features promoting modularity