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Fully abstract translations between functional languages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2009

Jon G. Riecke
Jon G. Riecke
Affiliation:
AT&T Bell Laboratories, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, NJ 07974
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Abstract

We examine the problem of finding fully abstract translations between programming languages, i.e., translations that preserve code equivalence and nonequivalence. We present three examples of fully abstract translations: one from call-by-value to lazy PCF, one from call-by-name to call-by-value PCF, and one from lazy to call-by-value PCF. The translations yield lower bounds on decision procedures for proving equivalences of code. We define a notion of ‘functional translation’ that captures the essence of the proofs of full abstraction, and show that some languages cannot be translated into others.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Mathematical Structures in Computer Science , Volume 3 , Issue 4 , December 1993 , pp. 387 - 415
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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