52,522 research outputs found
(Leftmost-Outermost) Beta Reduction is Invariant, Indeed
Slot and van Emde Boas' weak invariance thesis states that reasonable
machines can simulate each other within a polynomially overhead in time. Is
lambda-calculus a reasonable machine? Is there a way to measure the
computational complexity of a lambda-term? This paper presents the first
complete positive answer to this long-standing problem. Moreover, our answer is
completely machine-independent and based over a standard notion in the theory
of lambda-calculus: the length of a leftmost-outermost derivation to normal
form is an invariant cost model. Such a theorem cannot be proved by directly
relating lambda-calculus with Turing machines or random access machines,
because of the size explosion problem: there are terms that in a linear number
of steps produce an exponentially long output. The first step towards the
solution is to shift to a notion of evaluation for which the length and the
size of the output are linearly related. This is done by adopting the linear
substitution calculus (LSC), a calculus of explicit substitutions modeled after
linear logic proof nets and admitting a decomposition of leftmost-outermost
derivations with the desired property. Thus, the LSC is invariant with respect
to, say, random access machines. The second step is to show that LSC is
invariant with respect to the lambda-calculus. The size explosion problem seems
to imply that this is not possible: having the same notions of normal form,
evaluation in the LSC is exponentially longer than in the lambda-calculus. We
solve such an impasse by introducing a new form of shared normal form and
shared reduction, deemed useful. Useful evaluation avoids those steps that only
unshare the output without contributing to beta-redexes, i.e. the steps that
cause the blow-up in size. The main technical contribution of the paper is
indeed the definition of useful reductions and the thorough analysis of their
properties.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1405.331
A Computational Approach to Reflective Meta-Reasoning about Languages with Bindings
We present a foundation for a computational meta-theory of languages with bindings implemented in a computer-aided formal reasoning environment. Our theory provides the ability to reason abstractly about operators, languages, open-ended languages, classes of languages, etc. The theory is based on the ideas of higher-order abstract syntax, with an appropriate induction principle parameterized over the language (i.e. a set of operators) being used. In our approach, both the bound and free variables are treated uniformly and this uniform treatment extends naturally to variable-length bindings. The implementation is reflective, namely there is a natural mapping between the meta-language of the theorem-prover and the object language of our theory. The object language substitution operation is mapped to the meta-language substitution and does not need to be defined recursively. Our approach does not require designing a custom type theory; in this paper we describe the implementation of this foundational theory within a general-purpose type theory. This work is fully implemented in the MetaPRL theorem prover, using the pre-existing NuPRL-like Martin-Lof-style computational type theory. Based on this implementation, we lay out an outline for a framework for programming language experimentation and exploration as well as a general reflective reasoning framework. This paper also includes a short survey of the existing approaches to syntactic reflection
Nominal Logic Programming
Nominal logic is an extension of first-order logic which provides a simple
foundation for formalizing and reasoning about abstract syntax modulo
consistent renaming of bound names (that is, alpha-equivalence). This article
investigates logic programming based on nominal logic. We describe some typical
nominal logic programs, and develop the model-theoretic, proof-theoretic, and
operational semantics of such programs. Besides being of interest for ensuring
the correct behavior of implementations, these results provide a rigorous
foundation for techniques for analysis and reasoning about nominal logic
programs, as we illustrate via examples.Comment: 46 pages; 19 page appendix; 13 figures. Revised journal submission as
of July 23, 200
Relating Nominal and Higher-order Abstract Syntax Specifications
Nominal abstract syntax and higher-order abstract syntax provide a means for
describing binding structure which is higher-level than traditional techniques.
These approaches have spawned two different communities which have developed
along similar lines but with subtle differences that make them difficult to
relate. The nominal abstract syntax community has devices like names,
freshness, name-abstractions with variable capture, and the new-quantifier,
whereas the higher-order abstract syntax community has devices like
lambda-binders, lambda-conversion, raising, and the nabla-quantifier. This
paper aims to unify these communities and provide a concrete correspondence
between their different devices. In particular, we develop a
semantics-preserving translation from alpha-Prolog, a nominal abstract syntax
based logic programming language, to G-, a higher-order abstract syntax based
logic programming language. We also discuss higher-order judgments, a common
and powerful tool for specifications with higher-order abstract syntax, and we
show how these can be incorporated into G-. This establishes G- as a language
with the power of higher-order abstract syntax, the fine-grained variable
control of nominal specifications, and the desirable properties of higher-order
judgments.Comment: To appear in PPDP 201
Continuation-Passing C: compiling threads to events through continuations
In this paper, we introduce Continuation Passing C (CPC), a programming
language for concurrent systems in which native and cooperative threads are
unified and presented to the programmer as a single abstraction. The CPC
compiler uses a compilation technique, based on the CPS transform, that yields
efficient code and an extremely lightweight representation for contexts. We
provide a proof of the correctness of our compilation scheme. We show in
particular that lambda-lifting, a common compilation technique for functional
languages, is also correct in an imperative language like C, under some
conditions enforced by the CPC compiler. The current CPC compiler is mature
enough to write substantial programs such as Hekate, a highly concurrent
BitTorrent seeder. Our benchmark results show that CPC is as efficient, while
using significantly less space, as the most efficient thread libraries
available.Comment: Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation (2012). arXiv admin note:
substantial text overlap with arXiv:1202.324
Program transformations using temporal logic side conditions
This paper describes an approach to program optimisation based on transformations, where temporal logic is used to specify side conditions, and strategies are created which expand the repertoire of transformations and provide a suitable level of abstraction. We demonstrate the power of this approach by developing a set of optimisations using our transformation language and showing how the transformations can be converted into a form which makes it easier to apply them, while maintaining trust in the resulting optimising steps. The approach is illustrated through a transformational case study where we apply several optimisations to a small program
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