An observationally complete program logic for imperative higher-order functions

Kohei Honda,Nobuko Yoshida,Martin Berger

doi:10.1016/j.tcs.2013.11.003

An observationally complete program logic for imperative higher-order functions

Kohei Honda, Nobuko Yoshida + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcs.2013.11.003

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Journal: Theoretical Computer Science	Publication Date: Nov 7, 2013
Citations: 80	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Queen Mary University of London, Imperial College London, University of Sussex

#Axiomatic Semantics #Higher-order Functions + Show 8 more

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Abstract

We establish a strong completeness property called observational completeness of the program logic for imperative, higher-order functions introduced in [1]. Observational completeness states that valid assertions characterise program behaviour up to observational congruence, giving a precise correspondence between operational and axiomatic semantics. The proof layout for the observational completeness which uses a restricted syntactic structure called finite canonical forms originally introduced in game-based semantics, and characteristic formulae originally introduced in the process calculi, is generally applicable for a precise axiomatic characterisation of more complex program behaviour, such as aliasing and local state.

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