Ott: Effective tool support for the working semanticist

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Abstract

Semantic definitions of full-scale programming languages are rarely given, despite the many potential benefits. Partly this is because the available metalanguages for expressing semantics - usually either LATEX for informal mathematics or the formal mathematics of a proof assistant - make it much harder than necessary to work with large definitions. We present a metalanguage specifically designed for this problem, and a tool, Ott, that sanity-checks such definitions and compiles them into proof assistant code for Coq, HOL, and Isabelle/HOL, together with LATEX code for production-quality typesetting, and OCaml boilerplate. The main innovations are (1) metalanguage design to make definitions concise, and easy to read and edit; (2) an expressive but intuitive metalanguage for specifying binding structures; and (3) compilation to proof assistant code. This has been tested in substantial case studies, including modular specifications of calculi from the TAPL text, a Lightweight Java with Java JSR 277/294 module system proposals, and a large fragment of OCaml (OCamllight, 310 rules), with mechanised proofs of various soundness results. Our aim with this work is to enable a phase change: making it feasible to work routinely, without heroic effort, with rigorous semantic definitions of realistic languages. © Cambridge University Press 2010.

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APA

Sewell, P., Nardelli, F. Z., Owens, S., Peskine, G., Ridge, T., Sarkar, S., & Strniša, R. (2010). Ott: Effective tool support for the working semanticist. Journal of Functional Programming, 20(1), 71–122. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0956796809990293

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