Work

Higher-order abstract syntax

Year: 1988

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: We describe motivation, design, use, and implementation of higher-order abstract syntax as a central representation for programs, formulas, rules, and other syntactic objects in program manipulation and other formal systems where matching and substitution or unification are central operations. Higher-order abstract syntax incorporates name binding information in a uniform and language generic way. Thus it acts as a powerful link integrating diverse tools in such formal environments. We have implemented higher-order abstract syntax, a supporting matching and unification algorithm, and some clients in Common Lisp in the framework of the Ergo project at Carnegie Mellon University.

Source: ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI)

DOI: 10.1145/53990.54010

Authors: F. Pfenning, C. Elliott

Institution: Carnegie Mellon University

Language: English

Topic: Logic, programming, and type systems

Subfield: Software

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: U.S. Department of Defense, Advanced Research Projects Agency, Office of Naval Research

Award: G8876996369