Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2007
The specification of the data structures used in EAT, a softwaresystem for symbolic computation in algebraic topology, is based onan operation that defines a link among different specificationframeworks like hidden algebras and coalgebras. In this paper,this operation is extended using the notion of institution, givingrise to three institution encodings. These morphisms define acommutative diagram which shows three possible views of the sameconstruction, placing it in an equational algebraic institution,in a hidden institution or in a coalgebraic institution. Moreover,these morphisms can be used to obtain a new description of thefinal objects of the categories of algebras in these frameworks,which are suitable abstract models for the EAT data structures.Thus, our main contribution is a formalization allowing us toencode a family of data structures by means of a single algebra(which can be described as a coproduct on the image of theinstitution morphisms). With this aim, new particular definitionsof hidden and coalgebraic institutions are presented.