Wed 17 Jun 2015 10:30 - 10:55 at PLDI Main RED (Portland 256) - Semantics II Chair(s): Robert Bruce Findler

In this paper, we study the problem of generating inputs to a higher-order program causing it to error. We first study the problem in the setting of PCF, a typed, core functional language and contribute the first relatively complete method for constructing counterexamples for PCF programs. The method is relatively complete in the sense of Hoare logic; completeness is reduced to the completeness of a first-order solver over the base types of PCF. In practice, this means an SMT solver can be used for the effective, automated generation of higher-order counterexamples for a large class of programs.

We achieve this result by employing a novel form of symbolic execution for higher-order programs. The remarkable aspect of this symbolic execution is that even though symbolic higher-order inputs and values are considered, the path condition remains a first-order formula. Our handling of symbolic function application enables the reconstruction of higher-order counterexamples from this first-order formula.

After establishing our main theoretical results, we sketch how to apply the approach to untyped, higher-order, stateful languages with first-class contracts and show how counterexample generation can be used to detect contract violations in this setting. To validate our approach, we implement a tool generating counterexamples for erroneous modules written in Racket.

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Wed 17 Jun

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09:15 - 10:55
Semantics IIResearch Papers at PLDI Main RED (Portland 256)
Chair(s): Robert Bruce Findler Northwestern University
09:15
25m
Talk
Declarative Programming over Eventually Consistent Data Stores
Research Papers
KC Sivaramakrishnan University of Cambridge, Gowtham Kaki Purdue University, Suresh Jagannathan Purdue University
Media Attached
09:40
25m
Talk
Blame and coercion: Together again for the first time
Research Papers
Jeremy G. Siek Indiana University, Peter Thiemann University of Freiburg, Philip Wadler University of Edinburgh
Media Attached
10:05
25m
Talk
Lightweight, Flexible Object-Oriented Generics
Research Papers
Yizhou Zhang Cornell University, Andrew Myers , Barbara Liskov MIT, Guido Salvaneschi TU Darmstadt, Matt Loring Cornell University
Media Attached
10:30
25m
Talk
Relatively Complete Counterexamples for Higher-Order Programs
Research Papers
Phúc C. Nguyễn , David Van Horn University of Maryland, College Park
Media Attached