Variable binding is a prevalent feature of the syntax and proof theory of many logical systems. In this paper, we define a programming language that provides intrinsic support for both representing and computing with binding. This language is extracted as the Curry-Howard interpretation of a focused sequent calculus with two kinds of implication, of opposite polarity. The representational arrow extends systems of definitional reflection with a notion of scoped inference rules, which are used to represent binding. On the other hand, the usual computational arrow classifies recursive functions defined by pattern-matching. Unlike many previous approaches, both kinds of implication are connectives in a single logic, which serves as a rich logical framework capable of representing inference rules that mix binding and computation. 1

We construct a logical framework supporting datatypes that mix binding and computation, implemented as a universe in the dependently typed programming language Agda 2. We represent binding pronominally, using well-scoped de Bruijn indices, so that types can be used to reason about the scoping of variables. We equip our universe with datatype-generic implementations of weakening, substitution, exchange, contraction, and subordination-based strengthening, so that programmers need not reimplement these operations for each individual language they define. In our mixed, pronominal setting, weakening and substitution hold only under some conditions on types, but we show that these conditions can be discharged automatically in many cases. Finally, we program a variety of standard difficult test cases from the literature, such as normalization-by-evaluation for the untyped λ-calculus, demonstrating that we can express detailed invariants about variable usage in a program’s type while still writing clean and clear code.

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

Abstract. Combining higher-order abstract syntax and (co)-induction in a logical framework is well known to be problematic. Previous work [ACM02] described the implementation of a tool called Hybrid, within Isabelle HOL, syntax, and reasoned about using tactical theorem proving and principles of (co)induction. Moreover, it is definitional, which guarantees consistency within a classical type theory. The idea is to have a de Bruijn representation of syntax, while offering tools for reasoning about them at the higher level. In this paper we describe how to use it in a multi-level reasoning fashion, similar in spirit to other meta-logics such as Linc and Twelf. By explicitly referencing provability in a middle layer called a specification logic, we solve the problem of reasoning by (co)induction in the presence of non-stratifiable hypothetical judgments, which allow very elegant and succinct specifications of object logic inference rules. We first demonstrate the method on a simple example, formally proving type soundness (subject reduction) for a fragment of a pure functional language, using a minimal intuitionistic logic as the specification logic. We then prove an analogous result for a continuation-machine presentation of the operational semantics of the same language, encoded this time in an ordered linear logic that serves as the specification layer. This example demonstrates the ease with which we can incorporate new specification logics, and also illustrates a significantly

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.

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.