Abstract
It is rare to give a semantic definition of a full-scale programming language, despite the many potential benefits. Partly this is because the available metalanguages for expressing semantics U usually either LATEX for informal mathematics, or the formal mathematics of a proof assistant - make it much harder than necessary to work with large definitions.
We present a metalanguage specifically designed for this problem, and a tool, ott, that sanity-checks such definitions and compiles them into proof assistant code for Coq, HOL, Isabelle, and ( in progress) Twelf, together with LATEX code for production-quality typesetting, and OCaml boilerplate. The main innovations are: (1) metalanguage design to make definitions concise, and easy to read and edit; (2) an expressive but intuitive metalanguage for specifying binding structures; and (3) compilation to proof assistant code.
This has been tested in substantial case studies, including modular specifications of calculi from the TAPL text, a Lightweight Java with Java JSR 277/294 module system proposals, and a large fragment of OCaml ( around 306 rules), with machine proofs of various soundness results. Our aim with this work is to enable a phase change: making it feasible to work routinely, without heroic effort, with rigorous semantic definitions of realistic languages.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-12 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | ACM SIGPLAN Notices |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Sept 2007 |
| Event | 12th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming - Freiburg, Germany Duration: 1 Oct 2007 → 3 Oct 2007 |
Keywords
- languages
- verification
- theory
- standardization