Modular type-safety proofs in Agda
Christopher Schwaab, Jeremy G. Siek · 2013
Methods for reusing code are widespread and well researched, but methods for reusing proofs are still emerging. We consider the use of dependent types for this purpose, introducing a modular approach for composing mechanized proofs. We show that common techniques for abstracting algorithms over data structures naturally translate to abstractions over proofs. We introduce a language composed of a series of smaller language components, each defined as functors, and tie them together by taking the fixed point of their sum [Malcom, 1990]. We then give proofs of type preservation for each language component and show how to compose these proofs into a proof for the entire language, again by taking the fixed point of a sum of functors.