Abstract. This paper studies inductive definitions involving binders, in which aliasing between free and bound names is permitted. Such aliasing occurs in informal specifications of operational semantics, but is excluded by the common representation of binding as meta-level λ-abstraction. Drawing upon ideas from functional logic programming, we represent such definitions with aliasing as recursively defined functions in a higher-order typed functional programming language that extends core ML with types for name-binding, a type of “semi-decidable propositions” and existential quantification for types with decidable equality. We show that the representation is sound and complete with respect to the language’s operational semantics, which combines the use of evaluation contexts with constraint programming. We also give a new and simple proof that the associated constraint problem is NP-complete. 1

The Hybrid system (Ambler et al., 2002b), implemented within Isabelle/HOL, allows object logics to be represented using higher order abstract syntax (HOAS), and reasoned about using tactical theorem proving in general and principles of (co)induction in particular. The form of HOAS provided by Hybrid is essentially a lambda calculus with constants. Of fundamental interest is the form of the lambda abstractions provided by Hybrid. The user has the convenience of writing lambda abstractions using names for the binding variables. However each abstraction is actually a definition of a de Bruijn expression, and Hybrid can unwind the user’s abstractions (written with names) to machine friendly de Bruijn expressions (without names). In this sense the formal system contains a hybrid of named and nameless bound variable notation. In this paper, we present a formal theory in a logical framework which can be viewed as a model of core Hybrid, and state and prove that the model is representationally adequate for HOAS. In particular, it is the canonical translation function from λ-expressions to Hybrid that witnesses adequacy. We also prove two results that characterise how Hybrid represents certain classes of λ-expressions. The Hybrid system contains a number of different syntactic classes of expression, and associated abstraction mechanisms. Hence this paper also aims to provide a self-contained theoretical introduction to both the syntax and key ideas of the system; background in automated theorem proving is not essential, although this paper will be of considerable interest to those who wish to work with Hybrid in Isabelle/HOL.

In the programming-language community many authors communicate algorithms through the use of inference rules. To get from rules to working code requires careful thought and effort. If the rules change or the author wants to use a different algorithm, the effort required to fix the code can be disproportionate to the size of the change in the rules. This thesis shows that it is possible to generate working code automatically from inference rules as they appear in publications. The method of this generation is found in the combination of two domain-specific languages: Ruletex and MonStr. Ruletex formally describes inference rules; MonStr connects the rules to an algorithm. Ruletex descriptions are embedded in LATEX, the language that researchers use to publish their work, so that the author commands complete control of the rules ’ appearance. Moreover the generated code enjoys several nice properties: Existing code written in a general-purpose programming language can interoperate with Ruletex code, correctness of rules is decoupled from performance and termination of code, and implementations are conceptually simple, consisting only of λ-calculus with pattern matching. The main technical contribution of this work is the design of MonStr, the executionstrategy language used to form an algorithm out of rules. MonStr specifications provide an important guarantee: a valid strategy cannot affect partial correctness, although it can affect termination, completeness, and efficiency. iii Contents