Global semantic typing for inductive and coinductive computing

Inductive and coinductive types are commonly construed as ontological (Church-style) types, denoting canonical data-sets such as natural numbers, lists, and streams. For various purposes, notably the study of programs in the context of global semantics, it is preferable to think of types as semantical properties (Curry-style). Intrinsic theories were introduced in the late 1990s to provide a purely logical framework for reasoning about programs and their semantic types. We extend them here to data given by any combination of inductive and coinductive definitions. This approach is of interest because it fits tightly with syntactic, semantic, and proof theoretic fundamentals of formal logic, with potential applications in implicit computational complexity as well as extraction of programs from proofs. We prove a Canonicity Theorem, showing that the global definition of program typing, via the usual (Tarskian) semantics of first-order logic, agrees with their operational semantics in the intended model. Finally, we show that every intrinsic theory is interpretable in a conservative extension of first-order arithmetic. This means that quantification over infinite data objects does not lead, on its own, to proof-theoretic strength beyond that of Peano Arithmetic. Intrinsic theories are perfectly amenable to formulas-as-types Curry-Howard morphisms, and were used to characterize major computational complexity classes Their extensions described here have similar potential which has already been applied

Implicit complexity for coinductive data: a characterization of corecurrence

We propose a framework for reasoning about programs that manipulate coinductive data as well as inductive data. Our approach is based on using equational programs, which support a seamless combination of computation and reasoning, and using productivity (fairness) as the fundamental assertion, rather than bi-simulation. The latter is expressible in terms of the former. As an application to this framework, we give an implicit characterization of corecurrence: a function is definable using corecurrence iff its productivity is provable using coinduction for formulas in which data-predicates do not occur negatively. This is an analog, albeit in weaker form, of a characterization of recurrence (i.e. primitive recursion) in [Leivant, Unipolar induction, TCS 318, 2004].Comment: In Proceedings DICE 2011, arXiv:1201.034

On the mathematical synthesis of equational logics

We provide a mathematical theory and methodology for synthesising equational logics from algebraic metatheories. We illustrate our methodology by means of two applications: a rational reconstruction of Birkhoff's Equational Logic and a new equational logic for reasoning about algebraic structure with name-binding operators.Comment: Final version for publication in Logical Methods in Computer Scienc

Second-Order Algebraic Theories

Fiore and Hur recently introduced a conservative extension of universal algebra and equational logic from first to second order. Second-order universal algebra and second-order equational logic respectively provide a model theory and a formal deductive system for languages with variable binding and parameterised metavariables. This work completes the foundations of the subject from the viewpoint of categorical algebra. Specifically, the paper introduces the notion of second-order algebraic theory and develops its basic theory. Two categorical equivalences are established: at the syntactic level, that of second-order equational presentations and second-order algebraic theories; at the semantic level, that of second-order algebras and second-order functorial models. Our development includes a mathematical definition of syntactic translation between second-order equational presentations. This gives the first formalisation of notions such as encodings and transforms in the context of languages with variable binding

Maude: specification and programming in rewriting logic

Maude is a high-level language and a high-performance system supporting executable specification and declarative programming in rewriting logic. Since rewriting logic contains equational logic, Maude also supports equational specification and programming in its sublanguage of functional modules and theories. The underlying equational logic chosen for Maude is membership equational logic, that has sorts, subsorts, operator overloading, and partiality definable by membership and equality conditions. Rewriting logic is reflective, in the sense of being able to express its own metalevel at the object level. Reflection is systematically exploited in Maude endowing the language with powerful metaprogramming capabilities, including both user-definable module operations and declarative strategies to guide the deduction process. This paper explains and illustrates with examples the main concepts of Maude's language design, including its underlying logic, functional, system and object-oriented modules, as well as parameterized modules, theories, and views. We also explain how Maude supports reflection, metaprogramming and internal strategies. The paper outlines the principles underlying the Maude system implementation, including its semicompilation techniques. We conclude with some remarks about applications, work on a formal environment for Maude, and a mobile language extension of Maude

Partial Horn logic and cartesian categories

A logic is developed in which function symbols are allowed to represent partial functions. It has the usual rules of logic (in the form of a sequent calculus) except that the substitution rule has to be modified. It is developed here in its minimal form, with equality and conjunction, as “partial Horn logic”. Various kinds of logical theory are equivalent: partial Horn theories, “quasi-equational” theories (partial Horn theories without predicate symbols), cartesian theories and essentially algebraic theories. The logic is sound and complete with respect to models in , and sound with respect to models in any cartesian (finite limit) category. The simplicity of the quasi-equational form allows an easy predicative constructive proof of the free partial model theorem for cartesian theories: that if a theory morphism is given from one cartesian theory to another, then the forgetful (reduct) functor from one model category to the other has a left adjoint. Various examples of quasi-equational theory are studied, including those of cartesian categories and of other classes of categories. For each quasi-equational theory another, , is constructed, whose models are cartesian categories equipped with models of . Its initial model, the “classifying category” for , has properties similar to those of the syntactic category, but more precise with respect to strict cartesian functors

Initial Algebra Semantics for Cyclic Sharing Tree Structures

Terms are a concise representation of tree structures. Since they can be naturally defined by an inductive type, they offer data structures in functional programming and mechanised reasoning with useful principles such as structural induction and structural recursion. However, for graphs or "tree-like" structures - trees involving cycles and sharing - it remains unclear what kind of inductive structures exists and how we can faithfully assign a term representation of them. In this paper we propose a simple term syntax for cyclic sharing structures that admits structural induction and recursion principles. We show that the obtained syntax is directly usable in the functional language Haskell and the proof assistant Agda, as well as ordinary data structures such as lists and trees. To achieve this goal, we use a categorical approach to initial algebra semantics in a presheaf category. That approach follows the line of Fiore, Plotkin and Turi's models of abstract syntax with variable binding

E-Generalization Using Grammars

We extend the notion of anti-unification to cover equational theories and present a method based on regular tree grammars to compute a finite representation of E-generalization sets. We present a framework to combine Inductive Logic Programming and E-generalization that includes an extension of Plotkin's lgg theorem to the equational case. We demonstrate the potential power of E-generalization by three example applications: computation of suggestions for auxiliary lemmas in equational inductive proofs, computation of construction laws for given term sequences, and learning of screen editor command sequences.Comment: 49 pages, 16 figures, author address given in header is meanwhile outdated, full version of an article in the "Artificial Intelligence Journal", appeared as technical report in 2003. An open-source C implementation and some examples are found at the Ancillary file