Substitution Without Copy and Paste
Logic in Computer Science
2025-10-15 v1
Abstract
Defining substitution for a language with binders like the simply typed -calculus requires repetition, defining substitution and renaming separately. To verify the categorical properties of this calculus, we must repeat the same argument many times. We present a lightweight method that avoids repetition and that gives rise to a simply typed category with families (CwF) isomorphic to the initial simply typed CwF. Our paper is a literate Agda script.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2510.12304,
title = {Substitution Without Copy and Paste},
author = {Thorsten Altenkirch and Nathaniel Burke and Philip Wadler},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.12304},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
In Proceedings LFMTP 2025, arXiv:2510.11199