Equational Logic and Categorical Semantics for Multi-Languages

Buro, Samuele; Crole, Roy L.; Mastroeni, Isabella

doi:10.1016/j.entcs.2020.09.005

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…They focused on a static language interacting with a dynamic one, but similar techniques have been applied widely (e.g., object-oriented [20,21], affine and unrestricted [48], simple and dependently typed [40], functional language and assembly [41], linear and unrestricted [43]) and used to prove compiler properties (e.g., correctness [42], full abstraction [2,36]). More recently, there has been an effort understand this construction from a denotational [15] and categorical [14] perspective. Barrett et al [6] take a slightly different path, directly mixing languages (PHP and Python) and allowing bindings from one to be used in the other, though to similar ends.…”

Section: Related Work and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Semantic Soundness for Language Interoperability

Patterson¹,

Noble²,

Wagner³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Programs are rarely implemented in a single language, and thus questions of type soundness should address not only the semantics of a single language, but how it interacts with others. Even between type-safe languages, disparate features can frustrate interoperability, as invariants from one language can easily be violated in the other. In their seminal 2007 paper, Matthews and Findler [32] proposed a multilanguage construction that augments the interoperating languages with a pair of boundaries that allow code from one language to be embedded in the other. While this technique has been widely applied, their syntactic source-level interoperability doesn't reflect practical implementations, where the behavior of interaction is only defined after compilation to a common target, and any safety must be ensured by target invariants or inserted target-level "glue code. "In this paper, we present a novel framework for the design and verification of sound language interoperability that follows an interoperation-after-compilation strategy. Language designers specify what data can be converted between types of the two languages via a convertibility relation ∼ (" is convertible to ") and specify target-level glue code implementing the conversions. Then, by giving a semantic model of source-language types as sets of target-language terms, we can establish not only the meaning of our source types, but also soundness of conversions: i.e., whenever ∼ , the corresponding pair of conversions (glue code) convert target terms that behave like to target terms that behave like , and vice versa. With this, we can prove semantic type soundness for the entire system. We illustrate our framework via a series of case studies that demonstrate how our semantic interoperation-after-compilation approach allows us both to account for complex differences in language semantics and make efficiency trade-offs based on particularities of compilers or targets.

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Section: Related Work and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Semantic Soundness for Language Interoperability

Patterson¹,

Noble²,

Wagner³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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On Multi-language Abstraction

2020

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Modern software development rarely takes place within a single programming language. Often, programmers appeal to cross-language interoperability. Examples are exploitation of novel features of one language within another, and cross-language code reuse. Previous works developed a theory of so-called multi-languages, which arise by combining existing languages, defining a precise notion of (algebraic) multi-language semantics. As regards static analysis, the heterogeneity of the multilanguage context opens up new and unexplored scenarios. In this paper, we provide a general theory for the combination of abstract interpretations of existing languages, regardless of their inherent nature, in order to gain an abstract semantics of multi-language programs. As a part of this general theory, we show that formal properties of interest of multilanguage abstractions (e.g., soundness and completeness) boil down to the features of the interoperability mechanism that binds the underlying languages together. We extend many of the standard concepts of abstract interpretation to the framework of multi-languages.

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