Sergueï Lenglet

Polymorphic functions with set-theoretic types: part 1: syntax, semantics, and evaluation

This article is the first part of a two articles series about a calculus with higher-order polymorphic functions, recursive types with arrow and product type constructors and set-theoretic type connectives (union, intersection, and negation). In this first part we define and study the explicitly-typed version of the calculus in which type instantiation is driven by explicit instantiation annotations. In particular, we define an explicitly-typed lambda-calculus with intersection types and an efficient evaluation model for it. In the second part, presented in a companion paper, we define a local type inference system that allows the programmer to omit explicit instantiation annotations, and a type reconstruction system that allows the programmer to omit explicit type annotations. The work presented in the two articles provides the theoretical foundations and technical machinery needed to design and implement higher-order polymorphic functional languages for semi-structured data.

Applicative bisimulations for delimited-control operators

We develop a behavioral theory for the untyped call-by-value λ-calculus extended with the delimited-control operators shift and reset. For this calculus, we discuss the possible observable behaviors and we define an applicative bisimilarity that characterizes contextual equivalence. We then compare the applicative bisimilarity and the CPS equivalence, a relation on terms often used in studies of control operators. In the process, we illustrate how bisimilarity can be used to prove equivalence of terms with delimited-control effects.

Normal form bisimulations for delimited-control operators

We define a notion of normal form bisimilarity for the untyped call-by-value λ -calculus extended with the delimited-control operators shift and reset. Normal form bisimilarities are simple, easy-to-use behavioral equivalences which relate terms without having to test them within all contexts (like contextual equivalence), or by applying them to function arguments (like applicative bisimilarity). We prove that the normal form bisimilarity for shift and reset is sound but not complete w.r.t. contextual equivalence and we define up-to techniques that aim at simplifying bisimulation proofs. Finally, we illustrate the simplicity of the techniques we develop by proving several equivalences on terms.

Environmental Bisimulations for Delimited-Control Operators

We present a theory of environmental bisimilarity for the delimited-control operators shift and reset. We consider two different notions of contextual equivalence: one that does not require the presence of a top-level control delimiter when executing tested terms, and another one, fully compatible with the original CPS semantics of shift and reset, that does. For each of them, we develop sound and complete environmental bisimilarities, and we discuss up-to techniques.

Expansion for universal quantifiers

Expansion is an operation on typings (i.e., pairs of typing environments and result types) defined originally in type systems for the λ-calculus with intersection types in order to obtain principal (i.e., most informative, strongest) typings. In a type inference scenario, expansion allows postponing choices for whether and how to use non-syntax-driven typing rules (e.g., intersection introduction) until enough information has been gathered to make the right decision. Furthermore, these choices can be equivalent to inserting uses of such typing rules at deeply nested positions in a typing derivation, without needing to actually inspect or modify (or even have) the typing derivation. Expansion has in recent years become simpler due to the use of expansion variables (e.g., in System E). This paper extends expansion and expansion variables to systems with ∀-quantifiers. We present Fs, an extension of System F with expansion, and prove its main properties. This system turns type inference into a constraint solving problem; this could be helpful to design a modular type inference algorithm for System F types in the future.

Faithful (Meta-)Encodings Of Programmable Strategies Into Term Rewriting Systems

Rewriting is a formalism widely used in computer science and mathematical logic. When using rewriting as a programming or modeling paradigm, the rewrite rules describe the transformations one wants to operate and rewriting strategies are used to control their application. The operational semantics of these strategies are generally accepted and approaches for analyzing the termination of specific strategies have been studied. We propose in this paper a generic encoding of classic control and traversal strategies used in rewrite based languages such as Maude, Stratego and Tom into a plain term rewriting system. The encoding is proven sound and complete and, as a direct consequence, established termination methods used for term rewriting systems can be applied to analyze the termination of strategy controlled term rewriting systems. We show that the encoding of strategies into term rewriting systems can be easily adapted to handle many-sorted signatures and we use a meta-level representation of terms to reduce the size of the encodings. The corresponding implementation in Tom generates term rewriting systems compatible with the syntax of termination tools such as AProVE and TTT2, tools which turned out to be very effective in (dis)proving the termination of the generated term rewriting systems. The approach can also be seen as a generic strategy compiler which can be integrated into languages providing pattern matching primitives; experiments in Tom show that applying our encoding leads to performances comparable to the native Tom strategies.

A faithful encoding of programmable strategies into term rewriting systems

Rewriting is a formalism widely used in computer science and mathematical logic. When using rewriting as a programming or modeling paradigm, the rewrite rules describe the transformations one wants to operate and declarative rewriting strategies are used to control their application. The operational semantics of these strategies are generally accepted and approaches for analyzing the termination of specific strategies have been studied. We propose in this paper a generic encoding of classic control and traversal strategies used in rewrite based languages such as Maude, Stratego and Tom into a plain term rewriting system. The encoding is proven sound and complete and, as a direct consequence, established termination methods used for term rewriting systems can be applied to analyze the termination of strategy controlled term rewriting systems. The corresponding implementation in Tom generates term rewriting systems compatible with the syntax of termination tools such as AAProVE and TTT2, tools which turned out to be very effective in (dis)proving the termination of the generated term rewriting systems. The approach can also be seen as a generic strategy compiler which can be integrated into languages providing pattern matching primitives; this has been experimented for Tom and performances comparable to the native Tom strategies have been observed.

Howe's Method for Contextual Semantics

We show how to use Howes method to prove that context bisimilarity is a congruence for process calculi equipped with their usual semantics. We apply the method to two extensions of HOpi, with passivation and with join patterns, illustrating different proof techniques.

HOπ in Coq

We propose a formalization of HOπ in Coq, a process calculus where messages carry processes. Such a higher-order calculus features two very different kinds of binder: process input, similar to λ-abstraction, and name restriction, whose scope can be expanded by communication. We formalize strong context bisimilarity and prove it is compatible, i.e., closed under every context, using Howe’s method, based on several proof schemes we developed in a previous paper.

Fully abstract encodings of λ-calculus in HOcore through abstract machines

We present fully abstract encodings of the call-byname λ-calculus into HOcore, a minimal higher-order process calculus with no name restriction. We consider several equivalences on the λ-calculus side—normal-form bisimilarity, applicative bisimilarity, and contextual equivalence—that we internalize into abstract machines in order to prove full abstraction.