We seek a unified account of modularity for computational effects. We begin by reformulating Moggi’s monadic paradigm for modelling computational effects using the notion of enriched Lawvere theory, together with its relationship with strong monads; this emphasises the importance of the operations that produce the effects. Effects qua theories are then combined by appropriate bifunctors on the category of theories. We give a theory for the sum of computational effects, which in particular yields Moggi’s exceptions monad transformer and an interactive input/output monad transformer. We further give a theory of the commutative combination of effects, their tensor, which yields Moggi’s side-effects monad transformer. Finally we give a theory of operation transformers, for redefining operations when adding new effects; we derive explicit forms for the operation transformers associated to the above monad transformers.

Abstract. We introduce a new kind of models for constructive set theories based on categories of presheaves. These models are a counterpart of the presheaf models for intuitionistic set theories defined by Dana Scott in the ’80s. We also show how presheaf models fit into the framework of Algebraic Set Theory and sketch an application to an independence result. 1. Variable sets in foundations and practice Presheaves are of central importance both for the foundations and the practice of mathematics. The notion of a presheaf formalizes well the idea of a variable set, that is relevant in all the areas of mathematics concerned with the study of indexed families of objects [19]. One may then readily see how presheaves are of interest also in foundations: both Cohen’s forcing models for classical set theories and Kripke models for intuitionistic logic involve the idea of sets indexed by stages. Constructive aspects start to emerge when one considers the internal logic of categories of presheaves. This logic, which does not include classical principles such as the law of the excluded middle, provides a useful language to manipulate objects

We present an inductive definition of a universe containing codes for strictly positive families (SPFs) such as vectors or simply typed lambda terms. This construction extends the usual definition of inductive strictly positive types as given in previous joint work with McBride. We relate this to Indexed Containers, which were recently proposed in joint work with Ghani, Hancock and McBride. We demonstrate by example how dependent types can be encoded in this universe and give examples for generic programs.

Certain principles are fundamental to operational semantics, regardless of the languages or idioms involved. Such principles include rule-based definitions and proof techniques for congruence results. We formulate these principles in the general context of categorical logic. From this general formulation we recover precise results for particular language idioms by interpreting the logic in particular categories. For instance, results for first-order calculi, such as CCS, arise from considering the general results in the category of sets. Results for languages involving substitution and name generation, such as the π-calculus, arise from considering the general results in categories of sheaves and group actions. As an extended example, we develop a tyft/tyxt-like rule format for open bisimulation in the π-calculus.

We give an elementary and direct combinatorial definition of opetopes in terms of trees, well-suited for graphical manipulation (e.g. drawings of opetopes of any dimension and basic operations like sources, target, and composition); a substantial part of the paper is constituted by drawings and example computations. To relate our definition to the classical definition, we recast the Baez-Dolan slice construction for operads in terms of polynomial monads: our opetopes appear naturally as types for polynomial monads obtained by iterating the Baez-Dolan construction, starting with the trivial monad. Finally we observe a suspension operation for opetopes, and define a notion of stable opetopes. Stable opetopes form a least fixpoint for the Baez-Dolan construction. The calculus of opetopes is also well-suited for machine implementation: in an appendix we show how to represent opetopes in XML, and manipulate them with simple Tcl scripts.

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September, 2005 This paper studies categorical models of predicative formal systems, like Aczel’s CZF or Martin-Löf Type Theory. Following the suggestion of Moerdijk and Palmgren that the collection of such categorical models should have the closure properties of toposes, I study the stability under sheaves of five possible axiomatisations. The conclusion will be that all the notions of a “predicative topos ” that I consider, are stable under presheaves, while most are stable under sheaves. This opens up the possibility of using sheaf models for studying predicative theories. 1

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Recent work on higher-dimensional type theory has explored connections between Martin-Löf type theory, higher-dimensional category theory, and homotopy theory. These connections suggest a generalization of dependent type theory to account for computationally relevant proofs of propositional equality—for example, taking IdSet A B to be the isomorphisms between A and B. The crucial observation is that all of the familiar type and term constructors can be equipped with a functorial action that describes how they preserve such proofs. The key benefit of higher-dimensional type theory is that programmers and mathematicians may work up to isomorphism and higher equivalence, such as equivalence of categories. In this paper, we consider a further generalization of higher-dimensional type theory, which associates each type with a directed notion of transformation between its elements. Directed type theory accounts for phenomena not expressible in symmetric higher-dimensional type theory, such as a universe set of sets and functions, and a type Ctx used in functorial abstract syntax. Our formulation requires two main ingredients: First, the types themselves must be reinterpreted to take account of variance; for example, a Π type is contravariant in its domain, but covariant in its range. Second, whereas in symmetric type theory proofs of equivalence can be internalized using the Martin-Löf identity type, in directed type theory the two-dimensional structure must be made explicit at the judgemental level. We describe a 2-dimensional directed type theory, or 2DTT, which is validated by an interpretation into the strict 2-category Cat of categories, functors, and natural transformations. We also discuss applications of 2DTT for programming with abstract syntax, generalizing the functorial approach to syntax to the dependently typed and mixed-variance case. 1

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