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The \(\mathbb {K}\) Vision for the Future of Programming Language Design and Analysis

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Formal Methods in Outer Space

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNPSE,volume 13065))

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Abstract

Formal programming language semantics should be a unique opportunity to give birth to a better language, not a cumbersome post-mortem activity. Moreover, language implementations and analysis tools should be automatically generated from the formal semantics in a correct-by-construction manner, at no additional cost. In this paper, we discuss how we are pursuing this vision of programming language design and analysis within the context of the \(\mathbb {K}\) framework (http://kframework.org), where it is easy and fun to design and deploy new programming languages; where language designers can focus on the desired features and not worry about their implementation; and where the correctness of all auto-generated language implementations and tools is guaranteed on a case-by-case basis, and every individual task, be it parsing, execution, verification, or anything else, is endorsed by its own proof object that can be independently checked by third-party proof checkers, making no compromise to safety or correctness.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The code is extracted from the complete \(\mathbb {K}\) definition of an academic language named IMP\(^{++}\); see https://github.com/kframework/k/blob/master/k-distribution/tutorial/1_k/4_imp++/lesson_8/imp.md.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, USA

    Xiaohong Chen & Grigore Roşu

  2. Runtime Verification Inc., Urbana, USA

    Xiaohong Chen & Grigore Roşu

Authors
  1. Xiaohong Chen
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  2. Grigore Roşu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xiaohong Chen or Grigore Roşu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Ezio Bartocci

  2. Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Inria, CNRS, Grenoble INP, LIG, Grenoble, France

    Yliès Falcone

  3. University of Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

    Martin Leucker

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Chen, X., Roşu, G. (2021). The \(\mathbb {K}\) Vision for the Future of Programming Language Design and Analysis. In: Bartocci, E., Falcone, Y., Leucker, M. (eds) Formal Methods in Outer Space. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13065. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87348-6_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87348-6_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-87347-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-87348-6

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