Article

Towards a mechanized metatheory of standard ML

Authors:

Robert HarperAuthors Info & Claims

POPL '07: Proceedings of the 34th annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on Principles of programming languages

Pages 173 - 184

https://doi.org/10.1145/1190216.1190245

Published: 17 January 2007 Publication History

Abstract

We present an internal language with equivalent expressive power to Standard ML, and discuss its formalization in LF and the machine-checked verification of its type safety in Twelf. The internal language is intended to serve as the target of elaboration in an elaborative semantics for Standard ML in the style of Harper and Stone. Therefore, it includes all the programming mechanisms necessary to implement Standard ML, including translucent modules, abstraction, polymorphism, higher kinds, references, exceptions, recursive types, and recursive functions. Our successful formalization of the proof involved a careful interplay between the precise formulations of the various mechanisms, and required the invention of new representation and proof techniques of general interest.

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Index Terms

Towards a mechanized metatheory of standard ML
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Formal language definitions
      1. Semantics
      2. Syntax
2. Theory of computation
  1. Semantics and reasoning
    1. Program reasoning
      1. Program verification
    2. Program semantics

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cover image ACM Conferences

POPL '07: Proceedings of the 34th annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on Principles of programming languages

January 2007

400 pages

ISBN:1595935754

DOI:10.1145/1190216

General Chair:
Martin Hofmann
Ludwig-Maximilians U, Munich, Germany
,
Program Chair:
Matthias Felleisen
Northeastern University, Boston MA

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 42, Issue 1
Proceedings of the 2007 POPL Conference
January 2007
379 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/1190215
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2007 ACM.

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Published: 17 January 2007

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January 17 - 19, 2007

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3704858
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