English

A Type Theory for Defining Logics and Proofs

Logic in Computer Science 2019-05-13 v1 Programming Languages

Abstract

We describe a Martin-L\"of-style dependent type theory, called Cocon, that allows us to mix the intensional function space that is used to represent higher-order abstract syntax (HOAS) trees with the extensional function space that describes (recursive) computations. We mediate between HOAS representations and computations using contextual modal types. Our type theory also supports an infinite hierarchy of universes and hence supports type-level computation thereby providing metaprogramming and (small-scale) reflection. Our main contribution is the development of a Kripke-style model for Cocon that allows us to prove normalization. From the normalization proof, we derive subject reduction and consistency. Our work lays the foundation to incorporate the methodology of logical frameworks into systems such as Agda and bridges the longstanding gap between these two worlds.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1905.02617,
  title  = {A Type Theory for Defining Logics and Proofs},
  author = {Brigitte Pientka and David Thibodeau and Andreas Abel and Francisco Ferreira and Rebecca Zucchini},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.02617},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1901.03378

R2 v1 2026-06-23T08:59:22.096Z