Step-Indexed Relational Reasoning for Countable Nondeterminism

Programming languages with countable nondeterministic choice are computationally interesting since countable nondeterminism arises when modeling fairness for concurrent systems. Because countable choice introduces non-continuous behaviour, it is well-known that developing semantic models for programming languages with countable nondeterminism is challenging. We present a step-indexed logical relations model of a higher-order functional programming language with countable nondeterminism and demonstrate how it can be used to reason about contextually defined may- and must-equivalence. In earlier step-indexed models, the indices have been drawn from {\omega}. Here the step-indexed relations for must-equivalence are indexed over an ordinal greater than {\omega}

Computing with Capsules

Capsules provide a clean algebraic representation of the state of a computation in higher-order functional and imperative languages. They play the same role as closures or heap- or stack-allocated environments but are much simpler. A capsule is essentially a finite coalgebraic representation of a regular closed lambda-coterm. One can give an operational semantics based on capsules for a higher-order programming language with functional and imperative features, including mutable bindings. Lexical scoping is captured purely algebraically without stacks, heaps, or closures. All operations of interest are typable with simple types, yet the language is Turing complete. Recursive functions are represented directly as capsules without the need for unnatural and untypable fixpoint combinators

Resource Transition Systems and Full Abstraction for Linear Higher-Order Effectful Programs

International audienceWe investigate program equivalence for linear higher-order (sequential) languages endowed with primitives for computational effects. More specifically, we study operationally-based notions of program equivalence for a linear λ-calculus with explicit copying and algebraic effects à la Plotkin and Power. Such a calculus makes explicit the interaction between copying and linearity, which are intensional aspects of computation, with effects, which are, instead, extensional. We review some of the notions of equivalences for linear calculi proposed in the literature and show their limitations when applied to effectful calculi where copying is a first-class citizen. We then introduce resource transition systems, namely transition systems whose states are built over tuples of programs representing the available resources, as an operational semantics accounting for both intensional and extensional interactive behaviours of programs. Our main result is a sound and complete characterization of contextual equivalence as trace equivalence defined on top of resource transition systems

Resource transition systems and full abstraction for linear higher-order effectful programs

We investigate program equivalence for linear higher-order (sequential) languages endowed with primitives for computational effects. More specifically, we study operationally-based notions of program equivalence for a linear \u3b3-calculus with explicit copying and algebraic effects \ue0 la Plotkin and Power. Such a calculus makes explicit the interaction between copying and linearity, which are intensional aspects of computation, with effects, which are, instead, extensional. We review some of the notions of equivalences for linear calculi proposed in the literature and show their limitations when applied to effectful calculi where copying is a first-class citizen. We then introduce resource transition systems, namely transition systems whose states are built over tuples of programs representing the available resources, as an operational semantics accounting for both intensional and extensional interactive behaviours of programs. Our main result is a sound and complete characterization of contextual equivalence as trace equivalence defined on top of resource transition systems

A Complete, Co-Inductive Syntactic Theory of Sequential Control and State

We present a new co-inductive syntactic theory, eager normal form bisimilarity, for the untyped call-by-value lambda calculus extended with continuations and mutable references. We demonstrate that the associated bisimulation proof principle is easy to use and that it is a powerful tool for proving equivalences between recursive imperative higher-order programs. The theory is modular in the sense that eager normal form bisimilarity for each of the calculi extended with continuations and/or mutable references is a fully abstract extension of eager normal form bisimilarity for its sub-calculi. For each calculus, we prove that eager normal form bisimilarity is a congruence and is sound with respect to contextual equivalence. Furthermore, for the calculus with both continuations and mutable references, we show that eager normal form bisimilarity is complete: it coincides with contextual equivalence

An observationally complete program logic for imperative higher-order functions

We establish a strong completeness property called observational completeness of the program logic for imperative, higher-order functions introduced in [1]. Observational completeness states that valid assertions characterise program behaviour up to observational congruence, giving a precise correspondence between operational and axiomatic semantics. The proof layout for the observational completeness which uses a restricted syntactic structure called finite canonical forms originally introduced in game-based semantics, and characteristic formulae originally introduced in the process calculi, is generally applicable for a precise axiomatic characterisation of more complex program behaviour, such as aliasing and local state