A visual environment for developing context-sensitive term rewriting systems.pdfVIP

A Visual Environment for Developing Context-Sensitive Term Rewriting Systems Jacob Matthews 1 , Robert Bruce Findler 1 , Matthew Flatt 2 , and Matthias Felleisen 3 1 University of Chicago {jacobm, robby}@ 2 University of Utah mflatt@ 3 Northeastern University matthias@ Abstract. Over the past decade, researchers have found context-sensitive term-rewriting semantics to be powerful and expressive tools for modeling programming languages, particularly in establishing type soundness proofs. Unfortunately, developing such se- mantics is an error-prone activity. To address that problem, we have designed PLT Re- dex, an embedded domain-specific language that helps users interactively create and debug context-sensitive term-rewriting systems. We introduce the tool with a series of examples and discuss our experience using it in courses and developing an operational semantics for R 5 RS Scheme. 1 Introduction Since the late 1980s researchers have used context-sensitive term-rewriting systems as one of their primary tools for specifying the semantics of programming languages. They do so with good reason. Syntactic rewriting systems have proved to be simple, flexible, composable, and expressive abstractions for describing programming language behaviors. In particular, the rewriting approach to operational semantics described by Felleisen and Hieb [1] and popularized by Wright and Felleisen [2] is widely referenced and used. Unfortunately, designing context-sensitive rewriting systems is subtle and error- prone. People often make mistakes in their rewriting rules that can be difficult to detect, much less correct. Researchers have begun to acknowledge and respond to this diffi- culty. Xiao, Sabry, and Ariola [3], for instance, developed a tool that verifies that a given context-sensitive term-rewriting system satisfies the unique evaluation context lemma. In the same spirit, we present PLT Redex, a domain-specific language for context-sensitive reduction systems embedded in PLT