Abstract not found

Run-time type analysis is an increasingly important linguistic mechanism in modern programming languages. Language runtime systems use it to implement services such as accurate garbage collection, serialization, cloning and structural equality. Component frameworks rely on it to provide reflection mechanisms so they may discover and interact with program interfaces dynamically. Run-time type analysis is also crucial for large, distributed systems that must be dynamically extended, because it allows those systems to check program invariants when new code and new forms of data are added. Finally, many generic user-level algorithms for iteration, pattern matching, and unification can be defined through type analysis mechanisms. However, existing frameworks for run-time type analysis were designed for simple type systems. They do not scale well to the sophisticated type systems of modern and next-generation programming languages that include complex constructs such as first-class abstract types, recursive types, objects, and type parameterization. In addition, facilities to support type analysis often require complicated

The open calculus of constructions integrates key features of Martin-Löf's type theory, the calculus of constructions, Membership Equational Logic, and Rewriting Logic into a single uniform language. The two key ingredients are dependent function types and conditional rewriting modulo equational theories. We explore the open calculus of constructions as a uniform framework for programming, specification and interactive verification in an equational higher-order style. By having equational logic and rewriting logic as executable sublogics we preserve the advantages of a first-order semantic and logical framework and especially target applications involving symbolic computation and symbolic execution of nondeterministic and concurrent systems.