We define a dependent programming language in which programmers can define and compute with domain-specific logics, such as an access-control logic that statically prevents unauthorized access to controlled resources. Our language permits programmers to define logics using the LF logical framework, whose notion of binding and scope facilitates the representation of the consequence relation of a logic, and to compute with logics by writing functional programs over LF terms. These functional programs can be used to compute values at run-time, and also to compute types at compiletime. In previous work, we studied a simply-typed framework for representing and computing with variable binding [LICS 2008]. In this paper, we generalize our previous type theory to account for dependently typed inference rules, which are necessary to adequately represent domain-specific logics, and we present examples of using our type theory for certified software and mechanized metatheory.

This paper is part of a line of work on using the logical techniques of polarity and focusing to design a dependent programming language, with particular emphasis on programming with deductive systems such as programming languages and proof theories. Polarity emphasizes the distinction between positive types, which classify data, and negative types, which classify computation. In previous work, we showed how to use Zeilberger’s higher-order formulation of focusing to integrate a positive function space for representing variable binding, an essential tool for specifying logical systems, with a standard negative computational function space. However, our previous work considers only a simply-typed language. The central technical contribution of the present paper is to extend higher-order focusing with a form of dependency that we call positively dependent types: We allow dependency on positive data, but not negative computation, and we present the syntax of dependent pair and function types using an iterated inductive definition, mapping positive data to types, which gives an account of type-level computation. We construct our language inside the dependently typed programming language Agda 2, making essential use of coinductive types and induction-recursion.

This paper is part of a line of work on using the logical techniques of polarity and focusing to design a dependent programming language, with particular emphasis on programming with deductive systems such as programming languages and proof theories. Polarity emphasizes the distinction between positive types, which classify data, and negative types, which classify computation. In previous work, we showed how to use Zeilberger’s higher-order formulation of focusing to integrate a positive function space for representing variable binding, an essential tool for specifying logical systems, with a standard negative computational function space. However, our previous work considers only a simply-typed language. The central technical contribution of the present paper is to extend higher-order focusing with a form of dependency that we call positively dependent types: We allow dependency on positive data, but not negative computation. Additionally, we present the syntax of dependent pair and function types using an iterated inductive definition, mapping positive data to types, which gives an account of type-level computation. We construct our language inside the dependently typed programming language Agda 2, making essential use of coinductive types and induction-recursion.