Ott or Nott. Stephanie Weirich, Scott Owens, Peter Sewell, and Francesco Zappa Nardelli. In WMM 2010, 2pp. [ bib | project page | pdf ]
Ott: This talk discusses the experience of using Ott for programming language design. Or Nott? We reflect on the limitations of Ott, and on what other (New Ott?) tool support a working semanticist might want in an ideal world.
 
Ott: Effective Tool Support for the Working Semanticist. Peter Sewell, Francesco Zappa Nardelli, Scott Owens, Gilles Peskine, Thomas Ridge, Susmit Sarkar, and Rok Strniša. Journal of Functional Programming, 20(1):70--122, January 2010. Invited submission from ICFP 2007, which was awarded the ACM SIGPLAN Most Influential ICFP 2007 Paper, in 2017. [ bib | doi | project page | pdf ]
Semantic definitions of full-scale programming languages are rarely given, despite the many potential benefits. Partly this is because the available metalanguages for expressing semantics – usually either LaTeX for informal mathematics or the formal mathematics of a proof assistant – make it much harder than necessary to work with large definitions. We present a metalanguage specifically designed for this problem, and a tool, Ott, that sanity-checks such definitions and compiles them into proof assistant code for Coq, HOL, and Isabelle/HOL, together with LaTeX code for production-quality typesetting, and OCaml boilerplate. The main innovations are (1) metalanguage design to make definitions concise, and easy to read and edit; (2) an expressive but intuitive metalanguage for specifying binding structures; and (3) compilation to proof assistant code. This has been tested in substantial case studies, including modular specifications of calculi from the TAPL text, a Lightweight Java with Java JSR 277/294 module system proposals, and a large fragment of OCaml (OCamllight, 310 rules), with mechanised proofs of various soundness results. Our aim with this work is to enable a phase change: making it feasible to work routinely, without heroic effort, with rigorous semantic definitions of realistic languages.
 
Ott: Effective Tool Support for the Working Semanticist. Peter Sewell, Francesco Zappa Nardelli, Scott Owens, Gilles Peskine, Thomas Ridge, Susmit Sarkar, and Rok Strniša. In ICFP 2007, ACM SIGPLAN Most Influential ICFP Paper Award 2017 (for 2007). [ bib | doi | project page | ps | pdf ]
It is rare to give a semantic definition of a full-scale programming language, despite the many potential benefits. Partly this is because the available metalanguages for expressing semantics - usually either LaTeX for informal mathematics, or the formal mathematics of a proof assistant - make it much harder than necessary to work with large definitions.

We present a metalanguage specifically designed for this problem, and a tool, ott, that sanity-checks such definitions and compiles them into proof assistant code for Coq, HOL, Isabelle, and (in progress) Twelf, together with LaTeX code for production-quality typesetting, and OCaml boilerplate. The main innovations are:(1) metalanguage design to make definitions concise, and easy to read and edit;(2) an expressive but intuitive metalanguage for specifying binding structures; and (3) compilation to proof assistant code.

This has been tested in substantial case studies, including modular specifications of calculi from the TAPL text, a Lightweight Java with Java JSR 277/294 module system proposals, and a large fragment of OCaml (around 306 rules), with machine proofs of various soundness results. Our aim with this work is to enable a phase change: making it feasible to work routinely, without heroic effort, with rigorous semantic definitions of realistic languages.

 
Ott release, version 0.10.9, Peter Sewell and Francesco Zappa Nardelli, August 2007. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~pes20/ott/. [ bib | project page | http ]