Iowa Type Theory Commute

In this episode, I begin discussing the question and history of formalizing results in Programming Languages Theory using interactive theorem provers like Rocq (formerly Coq) and Agda.

In this episode, I describe the first proof of normalization for STLC, written by Alan Turing in the 1940s.  See this short note for Turing's original proof and some historical comments.

In this episode, after a quick review of the preceding couple, I discuss the property of normalization for STLC, and talk a bit about proof methods.  We will look at proofs in more detail in the coming episodes.  Feel free to join the Telegram group for the podcast if you want to discuss anything (or just email me at [email protected]).

Like addition and multiplication on Church-encoded numbers, exponentiation can be assigned a type in simply typed lambda calculus (STLC).  But surprisingly, the type is non-uniform.  If we abbreviate (A -> A) -> A -> A as Nat_A, then exponentiation, which is defined as \ x . \ y . y x, can be assigned type Nat_A -> Nat_(A -> A) -> Nat_A.  The second argument needs to have type at strictly higher order than the first argument.  This has the fascinating consequence that we cannot define self-exponentiation, \ x . exp x x.  That term would reduce to \ x . x x, which is provably not typable in STLC.  

It is maybe not so well known that arithmetic operations -- at least some of them -- can be implemented in simply typed lambda calculus (STLC).  Church-encoded numbers can be given the simple type (A -> A) -> A -> A, for any simple type A.  If we abbreviate that type as Nat_A, then addition and multiplication can both be typed in STLC, at type Nat_A -> Nat_A -> Nat_A.  Interestingly, things change with exponentiation, which we will consider in the next episode.

I review the typing rules and some basic examples for STLC.  I also remind listeners of the Curry-Howard isomorphism for STLC.  

In this episode, after a pretty long hiatus, I start a new chapter on simply typed lambda calculus.  I present the typing rules and give some basic examples.  Subsequent episodes will discuss various interesting nuances...

This episode presents two somewhat more advanced examples in DCS.  They are Harper's continuation-based regular-expression matcher, and Bird's quickmin, which finds the least natural number not in a given list of distinct natural numbers, in linear time.  I explain these examples in detail and then discuss how they are implemented in DCS, which ensures that they are terminating on all inputs.

In this episode, I continue introducing DCS by comparing it to termination checkers in constructive type theories like Coq, Agda, and Lean.  I warmly invite ITTC listeners to experiment with the tool themselves.  The repo is here. 

In this episode, I talk more about the DCS tool, and invite listeners to check it out and possibly contribute!  The repo is here.