This paper formalises within first-order logic some common practices in computer science to do with representing and reasoning about syntactical structures involving named bound variables (as opposed to nameless terms, explicit substitutions, or higher order abstract syntax). It introduces Nominal Logic, a version of first-order many-sorted logic with equality containing primitives for renaming via name-swapping and for freshness of names, from which a notion of binding can be derived. Its axioms express...

We present a generalisation of first-order unification to the practically important case of equations between terms involving binding operations. A substitution of terms for variables solves such an equation if it makes the equated terms #-equivalent, i.e. equal up to renaming bound names. For the applications we have in mind, we must consider the simple, textual form of substitution in which names occurring in terms may be captured within the scope of binders upon substitution. We are able to take a `nominal' approach to binding in which bound entities are explicitly named (rather than using nameless, de Bruijn-style representations) and yet get a version of this form of substitution that respects #-equivalence and possesses good algorithmic properties. We achieve this by adapting an existing idea and introducing a key new idea. The existing idea is terms involving explicit substitutions of names for names, except that here we only use explicit permutations (bijective substitutions). The key new idea is that the unification algorithm should solve not only equational problems, but also problems about the freshness of names for terms. There is a simple generalisation of the classical first-order unification algorithm to this setting which retains the latter's pleasant properties: unification problems involving #-equivalence and freshness are decidable; and solvable problems possess most general solutions.

The nominal approach to abstract syntax deals with the issues of bound names and α-equivalence by considering constructions and properties that are invariant with respect to permuting names. The use of permutations gives rise to an attractively simple formalisation of common, but often technically incorrect uses of structural recursion and induction for abstract syntax modulo α-equivalence. At the heart of this approach is the notion of finitely supported mathematical objects. This paper explains the idea in as concrete a way as possible and gives a new derivation within higher-order logic of principles of α-structural recursion and induction for α-equivalence classes from the ordinary versions of these principles for abstract syntax trees.

We present parametric higher-order abstract syntax (PHOAS), a new approach to formalizing the syntax of programming languages in computer proof assistants based on type theory. Like higherorder abstract syntax (HOAS), PHOAS uses the meta language’s binding constructs to represent the object language’s binding constructs. Unlike HOAS, PHOAS types are definable in generalpurpose type theories that support traditional functional programming, like Coq’s Calculus of Inductive Constructions. We walk through how Coq can be used to develop certified, executable program transformations over several statically-typed functional programming languages formalized with PHOAS; that is, each transformation has a machine-checked proof of type preservation and semantic preservation. Our examples include CPS translation and closure conversion for simply-typed lambda calculus, CPS translation for System F, and translation from a language with ML-style pattern matching to a simpler language with no variable-arity binding constructs. By avoiding the syntactic hassle associated with first-order representation techniques, we achieve a very high degree of proof automation. Categories and Subject Descriptors F.3.1 [Logics and meanings

We present a verified compiler to an idealized assembly language from a small, untyped functional language with mutable references and exceptions. The compiler is programmed in the Coq proof assistant and has a proof of total correctness with respect to bigstep operational semantics for the source and target languages. Compilation is staged and includes standard phases like translation to continuation-passing style and closure conversion, as well as a common subexpression elimination optimization. In this work, our focus has been on discovering and using techniques that make our proofs easy to engineer and maintain. While most programming language work with proof assistants uses very manual proof styles, all of our proofs are implemented as adaptive programs in Coq’s tactic language, making it possible to reuse proofs unchanged as new language features are added. In this paper, we focus especially on phases of compilation that rearrange the structure of syntax with nested variable binders. That aspect has been a key challenge area in past compiler verification projects, with much more effort expended in the statement and proof of binder-related lemmas than is found in standard penciland-paper proofs. We show how to exploit the representation technique of parametric higher-order abstract syntax to avoid the need to prove any of the usual lemmas about binder manipulation, often leading to proofs that are actually shorter than their pencil-andpaper analogues. Our strategy is based on a new approach to encoding operational semantics which delegates all concerns about substitution to the meta language, without using features incompatible with general-purpose type theories like Coq’s logic.

Logical frameworks supporting higher-order abstract syntax (HOAS) allow a direct and concise specification of a wide variety of languages and deductive systems. Reasoning about such systems within the same framework is well-known to be problematic. We describe the new version of the Hybrid system, implemented on top of Isabelle/HOL (as well as Coq), in which a de Bruijn representation of λ-terms provides a definitional layer that allows the user to represent object languages in HOAS style, while offering tools for reasoning about them at the higher level. We briefly describe how to carry out two-level reasoning in the style of frameworks such as Linc, and briefly discuss our system’s capabilities for reasoning using tactical theorem proving and principles of induction and coinduction.

Abstract. There is growing evidence for the usefulness of name permutations when dealing with syntax involving names and name-binding. In particular they facilitate an attractively simple formalisation of common, but often technically incorrect uses of structural recursion and induction for abstract syntax trees modulo α-equivalence. At the heart of this formalisation is the notion of finitely supported mathematical objects. This paper explains the idea in as concrete a way as possible and gives a new derivation within higher-order logic of principles of α-structural recursion and induction for α-equivalence classes from the ordinary versions of these principles for abstract syntax trees. 1

Hybrid is a system developed to specify and reason about logics, programming languages, and other formal systems expressed in higher-order abstract syntax (HOAS). An important goal of Hybrid is to exploit the advantages of HOAS within the well-understood setting of higher-order logic as implemented by systems such as Isabelle and Coq. In this paper, we add new capabilities for reasoning by induction on encodings of object-level inference rules. Elegant and succinct specifications of such inference rules can often be given using hypothetical and parametric judgments, which are represented by embedded implication and universal quantification. Induction over such judgments is well-known to be problematic. In previous work, we showed how to express this kind of judgment using a two-level approach, but reasoning by induction on such judgments was restricted to closed terms. The new capabilities we add include techniques for adding arbitrary “new ” variables to contexts and inductively reasoning about open terms. Very little overhead is required, namely a small library of definitions and lemmas, yet the reasoning power of the system and the class of properties that can be proved is significantly increased. We illustrate the approach using PCF, a simple programming language that serves as the core of a variety of functional languages. We encode the typing judgment, and prove by induction on this judgment that well-typed PCF terms have unique types.

Abstract. Nominal techniques are based on the idea of sets with a finitelysupported atoms-permutation action. We consider the idea of nominal renaming sets, which are sets with a finitelysupported atoms-renaming action; renamings can identify atoms, permutations cannot. We show that nominal renaming sets exhibit many of the useful qualities found in (permutative) nominal sets; an elementary sets-based presentation, inductive datatypes of syntax up to binding, cartesian closure, and being a topos. Unlike is the case for nominal sets, the notion of names-abstraction coincides with functional abstraction. Thus we obtain a concrete presentation of sheaves on

Abstract—We present a point of view concerning HOAS (Higher-Order Abstract Syntax) and an extensive exercise in HOAS along this point of view. The point of view is that HOAS can be soundly and fruitfully regarded as a definitional extension on top of FOAS (First-Order Abstract Syntax). As such, HOAS is not only an encoding technique, but also a higher-order view of a first-order reality. A rich collection of concepts and proof principles is developed inside the standard mathematical universe to give technical life to this point of view. The exercise consists of a new proof of Strong Normalization for System F. HOAS makes our proof considerably more direct than previous proofs. The concepts and results presented here have been formalized in the theorem prover Isabelle/HOL.