Calculating certified compilers for non-deterministic languages

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingArticle in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

  • Patrick Bahr

Reasoning about programming languages with nondeterministic semantics entails many difficulties. For instance, to prove correctness of a compiler for such a language, one typically has to split the correctness property into a soundness and a completeness part, and then prove these two parts separately. In this paper, we present a set of proof rules to prove compiler correctness by a single proof in calculational style. The key observation that led to our proof rules is the fact that the soundness and completeness proof follow a similar pattern with only small differences. We condensed these differences into a single side condition for one of our proof rules. This side condition, however, is easily discharged automatically by a very simple form of proof search. We implemented this calculation framework in the Coq proof assistant. Apart from verifying a given compiler, our proof technique can also be used to formally derive – from the semantics of the source language – a compiler that is correct by construction. For such a derivation to succeed it is crucial that the underlying correctness argument proceeds as a single calculation, as opposed to separate calculations of the two directions of the correctness property. We demonstrate our technique by deriving a compiler for a simple language with interrupts.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMathematics of program construction : 12th International Conference, MPC 2015, Königswinter, Germany, June 29--July 1, 2015. Proceedings
EditorsRalf Hinze, Janis Voigtländer
Number of pages28
PublisherSpringer
Publication date2015
Pages159-186
ISBN (Print)978-3-319-19796-8
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-319-19797-5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015
Event12th International Conference on Mathematics of Program Construction, MPC 2015 - Konigswinter, Germany
Duration: 29 Jun 20151 Jul 2015

Conference

Conference12th International Conference on Mathematics of Program Construction, MPC 2015
LandGermany
ByKonigswinter
Periode29/06/201501/07/2015
SeriesLecture notes in computer science
Volume9129
ISSN0302-9743

ID: 159747597