Coinductive Natural Semantics for Compiler Verification in Coq

(Coinductive) natural semantics is presented as a unifying framework for the verification of total correctness of compilers in Coq (with the feature that a verified compiler can be obtained). In this way, we have a simple, easy, and intuitive framework; to carry out the verification of a compiler, using a proof assistant in which both cases are considered: terminating and non-terminating computations (total correctness).

Compiling a 50-year journey

Fifty years ago, John McCarthy and James Painter (1967) published the first paper on compiler verification, in which they showed how to formally prove the correctness of a compiler that translates arithmetic expressions into code for a register-based machine. In this article, we revisit this example in a modern context, and show how such a compiler can now be calculated directly from a specification of its correctness using simple equational reasoning techniques.