Abstract not found

A programming metalogic is a formal system into which programming languages can be translated and given meaning. The translation should both reflect the structure of the language and make it easy to prove properties of programs. This thesis develops certain metalogics using techniques of category theory and treats recursion in a new way. The notion of a category with fixpoint object is defined. Corresponding to this categorical structure there are type theoretic equational rules which will be present in all of the metalogics considered. These rules define the fixpoint type which will allow the interpretation of recursive declarations. With these core notions FIX categories are defined. These are the categorical equivalent of an equational logic which can be viewed as a very basic programming metalogic. Recursion is treated both syntactically and categorically. The expressive power of the equational logic is increased by embedding it in an intuitionistic predicate calculus, giving rise to the FIX logic. This contains propositions about the evaluation of computations to values and an induction principle which is derived from the definition of a fixpoint object as an initial algebra. The categorical structure which accompanies the FIX logic is defined, called a FIX hyperdoctrine, and certain existence and disjunction properties of FIX are stated. A particular FIX hyperdoctrine is constructed and used in the proof of the same properties. PCF-style languages are translated into the FIX logic and computational adequacy reaulta are proved. Two languages are studied: Both are similar to PCF except one has call by value recursive function declararations and the other higher order conditionals. ...

Dipartimento di Informatica Universit`a di Venezia

For partially ordered sets that are continuous in the sense of D. S. Scott, the waybelow relation is crucial. It expresses the approximation of an ideal element by its finite parts. We present explicit characterizations of the way-below relation on spaces of continuous functions from topological spaces into continuous posets. Although it is well-known in which cases these function spaces are continuous posets, such characterizations were lacking until now.

. In a simply-typed, call-by-value (CBV) language with first-class continuations, the usual CBV fixpoint operator can be defined in terms of a simple, infinitelylooping iteration primitive. We first consider a natural but flawed definition, based on exceptions and "iterative deepening" of finite unfoldings, and point out some of its shortcomings. Then we present the proper construction using full first-class continuations, with both an informal derivation and a proof that the behavior of the defined operator faithfully mimics a "built-in" recursion primitive. In fact, given an additional uniformity assumption, the construction is a two-sided inverse of the usual definition of iteration from recursion. Continuing, we show that the CBV looping primitive is in fact the direct-style equivalent of a continuation-passing-style fixpoint, and that this correspondence extends all the way to traditional definitions of these operators in terms of reflexive types. 1. Introduction 1.1. Background ...

Models of the untyped λ-calculus may be defined either as applicative structures satisfying a bunch of first order axioms, known as “λ-models”, or as (structures arising from) any reflexive object in a cartesian closed category (ccc, for brevity). These notions are tightly linked in the sense that: given a λ-model A, one may define a ccc in which A (the carrier set) is a reflexive object; conversely, if U is a reflexive object in a ccc C, having enough points, then C ( , U) may be turned into a λ-model. It is well known that, if C does not have enough points, then the applicative structure C ( , U) is not a λ-model in general. This paper: (i) shows that this mismatch can be avoided by choosing appropriately the carrier set of the λ-model associated with U; (ii) provides an example of an extensional reflexive object D in a ccc without enough points: the Kleisli-category of the comonad “finite multisets ” on Rel; (iii) presents some algebraic properties of the λ-model associated with D by (i) which make it suitable for dealing with non-deterministic extensions of the untyped λ-calculus.

Sensible λ-theories are equational extensions of the untyped lambda calculus that equate all the unsolvable λ-terms and are closed under derivation. A longstanding open problem in lambda calculus is whether there exists a nonsyntactic model whose equational theory is the least sensible λ-theory H (generated by equating all the unsolvable terms). A related question is whether, given a class of models, there exist a minimal and maximal sensible λ-theory represented by it. In this paper we give a positive answer to this question for the semantics of lambda calculus given in terms of graph models. We conjecture that the least sensible graph theory, where “graph theory ” means “λ-theory of a graph model”, is equal to H, while in the main result of the paper we characterize the greatest sensible graph theory as the λ-theory B generated by equating λ-terms with the same Böhm tree. This result is a consequence of the fact that all the equations between solvable λ-terms, which have different Böhm trees, fail in every sensible graph model. Further results of the paper are: (i) the existence of a continuum of different sensible graph theories strictly included in B (this result positively answers Question 2 in [7, Section 6.3]); (ii) the non-existence of a graph model whose equational theory is exactly the minimal lambda theory λβ (this result negatively answers Question 1 in [7, Section 6.2] for the restricted class of graph models).

A longstanding open problem in lambda-calculus, raised by G.Plotkin, is whether there exists a continuous model of the untyped lambda-calculus whose theory is exactly the beta-theory or the beta-eta-theory. A related question, raised recently by C.Berline, is whether, given a class of lambda-models, there is a minimal equational theory represented by it.

In this paper, we survey the use of order-theoretic topology in theoretical computer science, with an emphasis on applications of domain theory. Our focus is on the uses of order-theoretic topology in programming language semantics, and on problems of potential interest to topologists that stem from concerns that semantics generates. Keywords: Domain theory, Scott topology, power domains, untyped lambda calculus Subject Classification: 06B35,06F30,18B30,68N15,68Q55 1 Introduction Topology has proved to be an essential tool for certain aspects of theoretical computer science. Conversely, the problems that arise in the computational setting have provided new and interesting stimuli for topology. These problems also have increased the interaction between topology and related areas of mathematics such as order theory and topological algebra. In this paper, we outline some of these interactions between topology and theoretical computer science, focusing on those aspects that have been mo...

M. DEZANI-CIANCAGLINI Universita di Torino, Italy F. HONSELL Universita di Udine, Italy F. ALESSI Universita di Udine, Italy Abstract We characterize those intersection-type theories which yield complete intersection-type assignment systems for l-calculi, with respect to the three canonical set-theoretical semantics for intersection-types: the inference semantics, the simple semantics and the F-semantics. Keywords Lambda Calculus, Intersection Types, Semantic Completeness, Filter Structures. 1 Introduction Intersection-types disciplines originated in [6] to overcome the limitations of Curry 's type assignment system and to provide a characterization of strongly normalizing terms of the l-calculus. But very early on, the issue of completeness became crucial. Intersection-type theories and filter l-models have been introduced, in [5], precisely to achieve the completeness for the type assignment system l" BCD W , with respect to Scott's simple semantics. And this result, ...