By abstracting over well-known properties of De Bruijn's representation with nameless dummies, we design a new theory of syntax with variable binding and capture-avoiding substitution. We propose it as a simpler alternative to Fiore, Plotkin, and Turi's approach, with which we establish a strong formal link. We also show that our theory easily incorporates simple types and equations between terms.

Abstract By abstracting over well-known properties of De Bruijn’s representation with nameless dummies, we design a new theory of syntax with variable binding and capture-avoiding substitution. We propose it as a simpler alternative to Fiore, Plotkin, and Turi’s approach, with which we establish a strong formal link. We also show that our theory easily incorporates simple types and equations between terms.

This paper is a contribution to the search for efficient and high-level mathematical tools to specify and reason about (abstract) programming languages or calculi. Generalising the reduction monads of Ahrens et al., we introduce transition monads, thus covering new applications such as lambda-bar-mu-calculus, pi-calculus, Positive GSOS specifications, differential lambda-calculus, and the big-step, simply-typed, call-by-value lambda-calculus. Moreover, we design a suitable notion of signature for transition monads.

This paper is a contribution to the search for efficient and high-level mathematical tools to specify and reason about (abstract) programming languages or calculi. Generalising the reduction monads of Ahrens et al., we introduce transition monads, thus covering new applications such as ̅λμ-calculus, π-calculus, Positive GSOS specifications, differential λ-calculus, and the big-step, simply-typed, call-by-value λ-calculus. Finally, we design a suitable notion of signature for transition monads.

In this work, we study reduction monads , which are essentially the same as monads relative to the free functor from sets into multigraphs. Reduction monads account for two aspects of the lambda calculus: on the one hand, in the monadic viewpoint, the lambda calculus is an object equipped with a well-behaved substitution; on the other hand, in the graphical viewpoint, it is an oriented multigraph whose vertices are terms and whose edges witness the reductions between two terms. We study presentations of reduction monads. To this end, we propose a notion of reduction signature . As usual, such a signature plays the role of a virtual presentation, and specifies arities for generating operations—possibly subject to equations—together with arities for generating reduction rules. For each such signature, we define a category of models; any model is, in particular, a reduction monad. If the initial object of this category of models exists, we call it the reduction monad presented (or specified) by the given reduction signature . Our main result identifies a class of reduction signatures which specify a reduction monad in the above sense. We show in the examples that our approach covers several standard variants of the lambda calculus.

We present a device for specifying and reasoning about syntax for datatypes, programming languages, and logic calculi. More precisely, we consider a general notion of "signature" for specifying syntactic constructions. Our signatures subsume classical algebraic signatures (i.e., signatures for languages with variable binding, such as the pure lambda calculus) and extend to much more general examples. In the spirit of Initial Semantics, we define the "syntax generated by a signature" to be the initial object - if it exists - in a suitable category of models. Our notions of signature and syntax are suited for compositionality and provide, beyond the desired algebra of terms, a well-behaved substitution and the associated inductive/recursive principles. Our signatures are "general" in the sense that the existence of an associated syntax is not automatically guaranteed. In this work, we identify a large and simple class of signatures which do generate a syntax. This paper builds upon ideas from a previous attempt by Hirschowitz-Maggesi, which, in turn, was directly inspired by some earlier work of Ghani-Uustalu-Hamana and Matthes-Uustalu. The main results presented in the paper are computer-checked within the UniMath system.