UniTO/tesi/tesi_unicode.org

\begin{comment}
* TODO Scaletta [1/6]
  - [X] Introduction
  - [-] Background [60%]
    - [X] Low level representation
    - [X] Lambda code [0%]
    - [X] Pattern matching 
    - [ ] Symbolic execution
    - [ ] Translation Validation
  - [ ] Translation validation of the Pattern Matching Compiler
    - [ ] Source translation
      - [ ] Formal Grammar
      - [ ] Compilation of source patterns
      - [ ] Rest?
    - [ ] Target translation
      - [ ] Formal Grammar
      - [ ] Symbolic execution of the Lambda target
    - [ ] Equivalence between source and target
  - [ ] Statement of correctness
  - [ ] Proof of correctness
  - [ ] Practical results 

Magari prima pattern matching poi compilatore?
  
\end{comment}

#+TITLE:   Translation Verification of the  pattern matching compiler
#+AUTHOR:   Francesco Mecca
#+EMAIL:    me@francescomecca.eu
#+DATE:

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\section{Introduction}

This dissertation presents an algorithm for the translation validation of the OCaml pattern
matching compiler. Given a source program and its compiled version the
algorithm checks whether the two are equivalent or produce a counter
example in case of a mismatch.
For the prototype of this algorithm we have chosen a subset of the OCaml
language and implemented a prototype equivalence checker along with a
formal statement of correctness and its proof.
The prototype is to be included in the OCaml compiler infrastructure
and will aid the development. 

Our equivalence algorithm works with decision trees. Source patterns are
converted into a decision tree using a matrix decomposition algorithm.
Target programs, described in the Lambda intermediate
representation language of the OCaml compiler, are turned into decision trees
by applying symbolic execution.

\begin{comment}
\subsection{Translation validation}
\end{comment}
A pattern matching compiler turns a series of pattern matching clauses
into simple control flow structures such as \texttt{if, switch}, for example:
\begin{lstlisting}
  match x with
  | [] -> (0, None)
  | x::[] -> (1, Some x)
  | _::y::_ -> (2, Some y)
\end{lstlisting}
\begin{lstlisting}
(if scrutinee
    (let (field_1 =a (field 1 scrutinee))
        (if field_1
            (let
                (field_1_1 =a (field 1 field_1)
                 x =a (field 0 field_1))
                (makeblock 0 2 (makeblock 0 x)))
            (let (y =a (field 0 scrutinee))
                (makeblock 0 1 (makeblock 0 y)))))
    [0: 0 0a])
\end{lstlisting}
\begin{comment}
%% TODO: side by side
\end{comment}
The code in the right is in the Lambda intermediate representation of
the OCaml compiler. The Lambda representation of a program is shown by
calling the \texttt{ocamlc} compiler with \texttt{-drawlambda} flag.

The OCaml pattern matching compiler is a critical part of the OCaml compiler
in terms of correctness because any bug would result in wrong code
production rather than triggering compilation failures.
Such bugs also are hard to catch by testing because they arise in
corner cases of complex patterns which are typically not in the
compiler test suite.

The OCaml core developers group considered evolving the pattern matching compiler, either by
using a new algorithm or by incremental refactoring of its code base.
For this reason we want to verify that new implementations of the
compiler avoid the introduction of new bugs and that such
modifications don't result in a different behavior than the current one. 

One possible approach is to formally verify the pattern matching compiler
implementation using a machine checked proof.
Another possibility, albeit with a weaker result, is to verify that
each source program and target program pair are semantically correct.
We chose the latter technique, translation validation because is easier to adopt in
the case of a production compiler and to integrate with an existing code base. The compiler is treated as a
black-box and proof only depends on our equivalence algorithm.

\subsection{Our approach}
%% replace common TODO
Our algorithm translates both source and target programs into a common
representation, decision trees. Decision trees where chosen because
they model the space of possible values at a given branch of
execution.
Here is the decision tree for the source example program.
\begin{verbatim}
       Node(Root)
       /        \
     (= [])    (= ::)
     /             \
   Leaf         Node(Root.1)
(0, None)       /         \
             (= [])      (= ::)
             /               \
          Leaf              Leaf
   (1, Some(Root.0))   (2, Some(Root.1.0))
\end{verbatim}
\texttt{(Root.0)} is called an \emph{accessor}, that represents the
access path to a value that can be reached by deconstructing the
scrutinee. In this example \texttt{Root.0} is the first subvalue of
the scrutinee.

Target decision trees have a similar shape but the tests on the
branches are related to the low level representation of values in
Lambda code. For example, cons cells \texttt{x::xs} are blocks with
tag 0.

To check the equivalence of a source and a target decision tree,
we proceed by case analysis.
If we have two terminals, such as leaves in the previous example,
we check that the two right-hand-sides are equivalent.
If we have a node $N$ and another tree $T$ we check equivalence for
each child of $N$, which is a pair of a branch condition $\pi_i$ and a
subtree $C_i$. For every child $(\pi_i, C_i)$ we reduce $T$ by killing all
the branches that are incompatible with $\pi_i$ and check that the
reduced tree is equivalent to $C_i$.

\subsection{From source programs to decision trees}
Our source language supports integers, lists, tuples and all algebraic
datatypes. Patterns support wildcards, constructors and literals, or
patterns $(p_1|p_2)$ and pattern variables.
We also support \texttt{when} guards.
Decision trees have nodes of the form:
\begin{lstlisting}
 type decision_tree =
  | Unreachable
  | Failure
  | Leaf of source_expr
  | Guard of source_expr * decision_tree * decision_tree
  | Switch of accessor * (constructor * decision_tree) list * decision_tree
\end{lstlisting}
In the \texttt{Switch} node we have one subtree for every head constructor
that appears in the pattern matching clauses and a fallback case for
other values. The branch condition $\pi_i$ expresses that the value at the
switch accessor starts with the given constructor.
\texttt{Failure} nodes express match failures for values that are not
matched by the source clauses.
\texttt{Unreachable} is used when we statically know that no value
can flow to that subtree.

We write $\sem{t_S}_S$ for the decision tree of the source program
$t_S$, computed by a matrix decomposition algorithm (each column
decomposition step gives a \texttt{Switch} node).
It satisfies the following correctness statement:
\[
\forall t_S, \forall v_S, \quad t_S(v_S) = \sem{t_S}_S(v_S)
\]
Running any source values $v_S$ against the source program gives the
same result as running it against the decision tree.

\subsection{From target programs to decision trees}
The target programs include the following Lambda constructs:
\texttt{let, if, switch, Match\_failure, catch, exit, field} and
various comparison operations, guards. The symbolic execution engine
traverses the target program and builds an environment that maps
variables to accessors. It branches at every control flow statement
and emits a Switch node. The branch condition $\pi_i$ is expressed as
an interval set of possible values at that point.
Guards result in branching. In comparison with the source decision
trees, \texttt{Unreachable} nodes are never emitted.

We write $\sem{t_T}_T$ for the decision tree of the target program
$t_T$, satisfying the following correctness statement:
\[
\forall t_T, \forall v_T, \quad t_T(v_T) = \sem{t_T}_T(v_T)
\]

\subsection{Equivalence checking}
TODO


* Background
  
** OCaml
Objective Caml (OCaml) is a dialect of the ML (Meta-Language)
family of programming that features with other dialects of ML, such
as SML and Caml Light.
The main features of ML languages are the use of the Hindley-Milner type system that
provides many advantages with respect to static type systems of traditional imperative and object
oriented language such as C, C++ and Java, such as:
    - Polymorphism: in certain scenarios a function can accept more than one
      type for the input parameters. For example a function that computes the length of a
      list doesn't need to inspect the type of the elements of the list and for this reason
      a List.length function can accept lists of integers, lists of strings and in general
      lists of any type. Such languages offer polymorphic functions through subtyping at
      runtime only, while other languages such as C++ offer polymorphism through compile
      time templates and function overloading.
      With the Hindley-Milner type system each well typed function can have more than one
      type but always has a unique best type, called the /principal type/.
      For example the principal type of the List.length function is "For any /a/, function from
      list of /a/ to /int/" and /a/ is called the /type parameter/.
    - Strong typing: Languages such as C and C++ allow the programmer to operate on data
      without considering its type, mainly through pointers. Other languages such as C#
      and Go allow type erasure so at runtime the type of the data can't be queried.
      In the case of programming languages using an Hindley-Milner type system the
      programmer is not allowed to operate on data by ignoring or promoting its type.
    - Type Inference: the principal type of a well formed term can be inferred without any
      annotation or declaration.
    - Algebraic data types: types that are modeled by the use of two
      algebraic operations, sum and product.
      A sum type is a type that can hold of many different types of
      objects, but only one at a time. For example the sum type defined
      as /A + B/ can hold at any moment a value of type A or a value of
      type B. Sum types are also called tagged union or variants.
      A product type is a type constructed as a direct product
      of multiple types and contains at any moment one instance for
      every type of its operands. Product types are also called tuples
      or records. Algebraic data types can be recursive
      in their definition and can be combined.
Moreover ML languages are functional, meaning that functions are
treated as first class citizens and variables are immutable,
although mutable statements and imperative constructs are permitted.
In addition to that  features an object system, that provides
inheritance, subtyping and dynamic binding, and modules, that
provide a way to encapsulate definitions. Modules are checked
statically and can be reifycated through functors.

** Compiling OCaml code

The OCaml compiler provides compilation of source files in form of a bytecode executable with an
optionally embeddable interpreter or as a native executable that could
be statically linked to provide a single file executable.
Every source file is treated as a separate /compilation unit/ that is
advanced through different states.
The first stage of compilation is the parsing of the input code that
is trasformed into an untyped syntax tree. Code with syntax errors is
rejected at this stage.
After that the AST is processed by the type checker that performs
three steps at once:
- type inference, using the classical /Algorithm W/
- perform subtyping and gathers type information from the module system
- ensures that the code obeys the rule of the OCaml type system
At this stage, incorrectly typed code is rejected. In case of success,
the untyped AST in trasformed into a /Typed Tree/.
After the  typechecker has proven that the program is type safe,
the  compiler lower the code to /Lambda/, an s-expression based
language that assumes that its input has already been proved safe.
After the  Lambda pass, the Lambda code is either translated into
bytecode or goes through a series of optimization steps performed by
the /Flambda/ optimizer before being translated into assembly.
\begin{comment}
TODO: Talk about flambda passes?
\end{comment}

This is an overview of the different compiler steps.
[[./files/ocamlcompilation.png]]

** Memory representation of OCaml values
An usual OCaml source program contains few to none explicit type
signatures.
This is possible because of type inference that allows to annotate the
AST with type informations. However, since the OCaml typechecker guarantes that a program is well typed
before being transformed into Lambda code, values at runtime contains
only a minimal subset of type informations needed to distinguish
polymorphic values.
For runtime values, OCaml uses a uniform memory representation in
which every variable is stored as a value in a contiguous block of
memory.
Every value is a single word that is either a concrete integer or a
pointer to another block of memory, that is called /cell/ or /box/.
We can abstract the type of OCaml runtime values as the following:
#+BEGIN_SRC 
type t = Constant | Cell of int * t 
#+END_SRC
where a one bit tag is used to distinguish between Constant or Cell.
In particular this bit of metadata is stored as the lowest bit of a
memory block.

Given that all the OCaml target architectures guarantee that all
pointers are divisible by four and that means that two lowest bits are
always 00 storing this bit of metadata at the lowest bit allows an
optimization. Constant values in OCaml, such as integers, empty lists,
Unit values and constructors of arity zero (/constant/ constructors)
are unboxed at runtime while pointers are recognized by the lowest bit
set to 0.



** Lambda form compilation
\begin{comment}
https://dev.realworld.org/compiler-backend.html
CITE: realworldocaml
\end{comment}
A Lambda code target file is produced by the compiler and consists of a
single s-expression. Every s-expression consist of /(/, a sequence of
elements separated by a whitespace and a closing /)/.
Elements of s-expressions are:
- Atoms: sequences of ascii letters, digits or symbols
- Variables
- Strings: enclosed in double quotes and possibly escaped
- S-expressions: allowing arbitrary nesting

The Lambda form is a key stage where the compiler discards type
informations and maps the original source code to the runtime memory
model described.
In this stage of the compiler pipeline pattern match statements are
analyzed and compiled into an automata.
\begin{comment}
evidenzia centralita` rispetto alla tesi
\end{comment}
#+BEGIN_SRC 
type t = | Foo | Bar | Baz | Fred

let test = function
  | Foo -> "foo"
  | Bar -> "bar"
  | Baz -> "baz"
  | Fred -> "fred"
#+END_SRC
The Lambda output for this code can be obtained by running the
compiler with the /-dlambda/ flag:
#+BEGIN_SRC 
(setglobal Prova!
  (let
    (test/85 =
       (function param/86
         (switch* param/86
          case int 0: "foo"
          case int 1: "bar"
          case int 2: "baz"
          case int 3: "fred")))
    (makeblock 0 test/85)))
#+END_SRC
As outlined by the example, the /makeblock/ directive is responsible
for allocating low level OCaml values and every constant constructor
ot the algebraic type /t/ is stored in memory as an integer.
The /setglobal/ directives declares a new binding in the global scope:
Every concept of modules is lost at this stage of compilation.
The pattern matching compiler uses a jump table to map every pattern
matching clauses to its target expression. Values are addressed by a
unique name.
#+BEGIN_SRC 
type t = | English of p | French of q
type p = | Foo | Bar
type q = | Tata| Titi
type t = | English of p | French of q

let test = function
  | English Foo -> "foo"
  | English Bar -> "bar"
  | French Tata -> "baz"
  | French Titi -> "fred"
#+END_SRC
In the case of types with a smaller number of variants, the pattern
matching compiler may avoid the overhead of computing a jump table.
This example also highlights the fact that non constant constructor
are mapped to cons cell that are accessed using the /tag/ directive.
#+BEGIN_SRC 
(setglobal Prova!
  (let
    (test/89 =
       (function param/90
         (switch* param/90
          case tag 0: (if (!= (field 0 param/90) 0) "bar" "foo")
          case tag 1: (if (!= (field 0 param/90) 0) "fred" "baz"))))
    (makeblock 0 test/89)))
#+END_SRC
In the Lambda language are several numeric types:
- integers: that us either 31 or 63 bit two's complement arithmetic
  depending on system word size, and also wrapping on overflow
- 32 bit and 64 bit integers: that use 32-bit and 64-bit two's complement arithmetic
  with wrap on overflow
- big integers: offer integers with arbitrary precision
- floats: that use IEEE754 double-precision (64-bit) arithmetic with
  the addition of the literals /infinity/, /neg_infinity/ and /nan/.

The are various numeric operations defined:

- Arithmetic operations: +, -, *, /, % (modulo), neg (unary negation)
- Bitwise operations: &, |, ^, <<, >> (zero-shifting), a>> (sign extending)
- Numeric comparisons: <, >, <=, >=, ==

*** Functions

Functions are defined using the following syntax, and close over all
bindings in scope: (lambda (arg1 arg2 arg3) BODY)
and are applied using the following syntax: (apply FUNC ARG ARG ARG)
Evaluation is eager.

*** Other atoms
The atom /let/ introduces a sequence of bindings at a smaller scope
than the global one:
(let BINDING BINDING BINDING ... BODY)

The Lambda form supports many other directives such as /strinswitch/
that is constructs aspecialized jump tables for string, integer range
comparisons and so on.
These construct are explicitely undocumented because the Lambda code
intermediate language can change across compiler releases.
\begin{comment}
Spiega che la sintassi che supporti e` quella nella BNF
\end{comment}



** Pattern matching

Pattern matching is a widely adopted mechanism to interact with ADT.
C family languages provide branching on predicates through the use of
if statements and switch statements.
Pattern matching on the other hands express predicates through
syntactic templates that also allow to bind on data structures of
arbitrary shapes. One common example of pattern matching is the use of regular
expressions on strings.  provides pattern matching on ADT and
primitive data types.
The result of a pattern matching operation is always one of:
- this value does not match this pattern”
- this value matches this pattern, resulting the following bindings of
  names to values and the jump to the expression pointed at the
  pattern.

#+BEGIN_SRC 
type color = | Red | Blue | Green | Black | White

match color with
| Red -> print "red"
| Blue -> print "red"
| Green -> print "red"
| _ -> print "white or black"
#+END_SRC

 provides tokens to express data destructoring.
For example we can examine the content of a list with pattern matching

#+BEGIN_SRC 

begin match list with
| [ ] -> print "empty list"
| element1 :: [ ] -> print "one element"
| (element1 :: element2) :: [ ] -> print "two elements"
| head :: tail-> print "head followed by many elements"
#+END_SRC

Parenthesized patterns, such as the third one in the previous example,
matches the same value as the pattern without parenthesis.

The same could be done with tuples
#+BEGIN_SRC 

begin match tuple with
| (Some _, Some _) -> print "Pair of optional types"
| (Some _, None) | (None, Some _) -> print "Pair of optional types, one of which is null"
| (None, None) -> print "Pair of optional types, both null"
#+END_SRC

The pattern pattern₁ |  pattern₂ represents the logical "or" of the
two patterns pattern₁ and pattern₂. A value matches pattern₁ |
pattern₂ if it matches pattern₁ or pattern₂.

Pattern clauses can make the use of /guards/ to test predicates and
variables can captured (binded in scope).

#+BEGIN_SRC 

begin match token_list with
| "switch"::var::"{"::rest -> ...
| "case"::":"::var::rest when is_int var -> ...
| "case"::":"::var::rest when is_string var -> ...
| "}"::[ ] -> ...
| "}"::rest -> error "syntax error: " rest

#+END_SRC

Moreover, the  pattern matching compiler emits a warning when a
pattern is not exhaustive or some patterns are shadowed by precedent ones.

** Symbolic execution
TODO

** Translation validation
Translators, such as translators and code generators, are huge pieces of
software usually consisting of multiple subsystem and
constructing an actual specification of a translator implementation for
formal validation is a very long task. Moreover, different
translators implement different algorithms, so the correctness proof of
a translator cannot be generalized and reused to prove another translator.
Translation validation is an alternative to the verification of
existing translators that consists of taking the source and the target
(compiled) program and proving /a posteriori/ their semantic equivalence.

- [ ] Techniques for translation validation
- [ ] What does semantically equivalent mean
- [ ] What happens when there is no semantic equivalence
- [ ] Translation validation through symbolic execution

* Translation validation of the Pattern Matching Compiler

** Source program
The algorithm takes as its input a source program and translates it
into an algebraic data structure called /decision_tree/.

#+BEGIN_SRC 
type decision_tree =
  | Unreachable
  | Failure
  | Leaf of source_expr
  | Guard of source_blackbox * decision_tree * decision_tree
  | Node of accessor * (constructor * decision_tree) list * decision_tree
#+END_SRC

Unreachable, Leaf of source_expr and Failure are the terminals of the three.
We distinguish
- Unreachable: statically it is known that no value can go there
- Failure: a value matching this part results in an error
- Leaf: a value matching this part results into the evaluation of a
  source black box of  code

The algorithm doesn't support type-declaration-based analysis 
to know the list of constructors at a given type.
Let's consider some trivial examples:

#+BEGIN_SRC 
function true -> 1
#+END_SRC

[ ] Converti a disegni 

Is translated to
|Node ([(true, Leaf 1)], Failure)
while
#+BEGIN_SRC 
function 
true -> 1 
| false -> 2
#+END_SRC
will give
|Node ([(true, Leaf 1); (false, Leaf 2)])

It is possible to produce Unreachable examples by using
 refutation clauses (a "dot" in the right-hand-side)
#+BEGIN_SRC 
function 
true -> 1 
| false -> 2 
| _ -> .
#+END_SRC
that gets translated into
Node ([(true, Leaf 1); (false, Leaf 2)], Unreachable)

We trust this annotation, which is reasonable as the  type-checker
verifies that it indeed holds.

Guard nodes of the tree are emitted whenever a guard is found. Guards
node contains a blackbox of  code that is never evaluated and two
branches, one that is taken in case the guard evaluates to true and
the other one that contains the path taken when the guard evaluates to
true.

[ ] Finisci con Node
[ ] Spiega del fallback
[ ] rivedi compilazione per tenere in considerazione il tuo albero invece che le Lambda
[ ] Specifica che stesso algoritmo usato per compilare a lambda, piu` optimizations

The source code of a pattern matching function has the
following form:

|match variable with
|\vert pattern₁ -> expr₁
|\vert pattern₂ when guard -> expr₂
|\vert pattern₃ as var -> expr₃ 
|⋮
|\vert pₙ -> exprₙ

and can include any expression that is legal for the OCaml compiler,
such as /when/ guards and assignments. Patterns could or could not
be exhaustive.

Pattern matching code could also be written using the more compact form:
|function
|\vert pattern₁ -> expr₁
|\vert pattern₂ when guard -> expr₂
|\vert pattern₃ as var -> expr₃ 
|⋮
|\vert pₙ -> exprₙ


This BNF grammar describes formally the grammar of the source program:

#+BEGIN_SRC bnf
start ::= "match" id "with" patterns | "function" patterns
patterns ::= (pattern0|pattern1) pattern1+
;; pattern0 and pattern1 are needed to distinguish the first case in which
;; we can avoid writing the optional vertical line
pattern0 ::= clause 
pattern1 ::= "|" clause
clause ::= lexpr "->" rexpr

lexpr ::= rule (ε|condition)
rexpr ::= _code ;; arbitrary code

rule ::= wildcard|variable|constructor_pattern|or_pattern ;;

;; rules
wildcard ::= "_"
variable ::= identifier
constructor_pattern ::= constructor (rule|ε) (assignment|ε)

constructor ::= int|float|char|string|bool
                |unit|record|exn|objects|ref
                |list|tuple|array
                |variant|parameterized_variant ;;  data types

or_pattern ::=  rule ("|" wildcard|variable|constructor_pattern)+

condition ::= "when" bexpr 
assignment ::= "as" id
bexpr ::= _code ;; arbitrary code
#+END_SRC

\begin{comment}
Check that it is still coherent to this bnf
\end{comment}

Patterns are of the form
| pattern         | type of pattern    |
|-----------------+---------------------|
| _               | wildcard            |
| x               | variable            |
| c(p₁,p₂,...,pₙ) | constructor pattern |
| (p₁\vert p₂)    | or-pattern          |

During compilation by the translators expressions are compiled into
Lambda code and are referred as lambda code actions lᵢ.

The entire pattern matching code is represented as a clause matrix
that associates rows of patterns (p_{i,1}, p_{i,2}, ..., p_{i,n}) to
lambda code action lⁱ
\begin{equation*}
(P → L) =
\begin{pmatrix}
p_{1,1} & p_{1,2} & \cdots & p_{1,n} & → l₁ \\
p_{2,1} & p_{2,2} & \cdots & p_{2,n} & →  l₂ \\
\vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \vdots & → \vdots \\
p_{m,1} & p_{m,2} & \cdots & p_{m,n} & → lₘ
\end{pmatrix}
\end{equation*}

The pattern /p/ matches a value /v/, written as p ≼ v, when one of the
following rules apply

|--------------------+---+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
| _                  | ≼ | v                  | ∀v                                        |
| x                  | ≼ | v                  | ∀v                                        |
| (p₁ \vert\ p₂)     | ≼ | v                  | iff p₁ ≼ v or p₂ ≼ v                      |
| c(p₁, p₂, ..., pₐ) | ≼ | c(v₁, v₂, ..., vₐ) | iff (p₁, p₂, ..., pₐ) ≼ (v₁, v₂, ..., vₐ) |
| (p₁, p₂, ..., pₐ)  | ≼ | (v₁, v₂, ..., vₐ)  | iff pᵢ ≼ vᵢ ∀i ∈ [1..a]                   |
|--------------------+---+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|

When a value /v/ matches pattern /p/ we say that /v/ is an /instance/ of /p/.

Considering the pattern matrix P we say that the value vector
$\vec{v}$ = (v₁, v₂, ..., vᵢ) matches the line number i in P  if and only if the following two
conditions are satisfied:
- p_{i,1}, p_{i,2}, \cdots, p_{i,n}  ≼ (v₁, v₂, ..., vᵢ)
- ∀j < i p_{j,1}, p_{j,2}, \cdots, p_{j,n} ⋠ (v₁, v₂, ..., vᵢ) 

We can define the following three relations with respect to patterns:
- Patter p is less precise than pattern q, written p ≼ q, when all
  instances of q are instances of p
- Pattern p and q are equivalent, written p ≡ q, when their instances
  are the same
- Patterns p and q are compatible when they share a common instance

\subsubsection{Parsing of the source program}

The source program of the following general form is parsed using a parser
generated by Menhir, a LR(1) parser generator for the OCaml programming language.
Menhir compiles LR(1) a grammar specification, in this case the OCaml pattern matching
grammar, down to OCaml code. 

|match variable with
|\vert pattern₁ -> e₁
|\vert pattern₂ -> e₂
|⋮
|\vert pₘ -> eₘ

The result of parsing, when successful, results in a list of clauses
and a list of type declarations.
Every clause consists of three objects: a left-hand-side that is the
kind of pattern expressed, an option guard and a right-hand-side expression.
Patterns are encoded in the following way:
| pattern         | type        |
|-----------------+-------------|
| _               | Wildcard    |
| p₁ as x         | Assignment  |
| c(p₁,p₂,...,pₙ) | Constructor |
| (p₁\vert p₂)    | Orpat       |

Guards and right-hand-sides are treated as a blackbox of OCaml code.
A sound approach for treating these blackbox would be to inspect the
OCaml compiler during translation to Lambda code and extract the
blackboxes compiled in their Lambda representation.
This would allow to test for equality with the respective blackbox at
the target level.
Given that this level of introspection is currently not possibile, we
decided to restrict the structure of blackboxes to the following (valid) OCaml
code:

#+BEGIN_SRC 
external guard : 'a -> 'b = "guard"
external observe : 'a -> 'b = "observe"
#+END_SRC 

We assume these two external functions /guard/ and /observe/ with a valid
type that lets the user pass any number of arguments to them.
All the guards are of the form \texttt{guard <arg> <arg> <arg>}, where the
<arg> are expressed using the OCaml pattern matching language.
Similarly, all the right-hand-side expressions are of the form
\texttt{observe <arg> <arg> ...} with the same constraints on arguments.

#+BEGIN_SRC 
type t = Z | S of t

let _ = function
  | Z -> observe 0
  | S Z -> observe 1
  | S x when guard x -> observe 2
  | S (S x) as y when guard x y -> observe 3
  | S _ -> observe 4
#+END_SRC

Once parsed, the type declarations and the list of clauses are encoded in the form of a matrix
that is later evaluated using a matrix decomposition algorithm.

\subsubsection{Matrix decomposition of pattern clauses}

The initial input of the decomposition algorithm C consists of a vector of variables
$\vec{x}$ = (x₁, x₂, ..., xₙ)  of size /n/ where /n/ is the arity of
the type of /x/ and a clause matrix P → L of width n and height m.
That is:

\begin{equation*}
C((\vec{x} = (x₁, x₂, ..., xₙ),
\begin{pmatrix}
p_{1,1} & p_{1,2} & \cdots & p_{1,n} → l₁ \\
p_{2,1} & p_{2,2} & \cdots & p_{2,n} → l₂ \\
\vdots & \vdots & \ddots & \vdots →  \vdots \\
p_{m,1} & p_{m,2} & \cdots & p_{m,n} → lₘ)
\end{pmatrix}
\end{equation*}

The base case C₀ of the algorithm is the case in which the $\vec{x}$
is empty, that is $\vec{x}$ = (), then the result of the compilation
C₀ is l₁
\begin{equation*}
C₀((),
\begin{pmatrix}
→ l₁ \\
→ l₂ \\
→  \vdots \\
→ lₘ
\end{pmatrix})
) = l₁
\end{equation*}

When $\vec{x}$ ≠ () then the compilation advances using one of the
following four rules:

1) Variable rule: if all patterns of the first column of P are wildcard patterns or
   bind the value to a variable, then 

    \begin{equation*}
    C(\vec{x}, P → L) = C((x₂, x₃, ..., xₙ), P' → L')
    \end{equation*}
    where
    \begin{equation*}
    \begin{pmatrix}
    p_{1,2} & \cdots & p_{1,n} & → & (let & y₁ & x₁) & l₁ \\
    p_{2,2} & \cdots & p_{2,n} & → & (let & y₂ & x₁) & l₂ \\
    \vdots & \ddots & \vdots & →  & \vdots & \vdots & \vdots & \vdots \\
    p_{m,2} & \cdots & p_{m,n} & → & (let & yₘ & x₁) & lₘ
    \end{pmatrix}
    \end{equation*}

    That means in every lambda action lᵢ there is a binding of x₁ to the
    variable that appears on the pattern $p_{i,1}. Bindings are omitted
    for wildcard patterns and the lambda action lᵢ remains unchanged.

2) Constructor rule: if all patterns in the first column of P are
   constructors patterns of the form k(q₁, q₂, ..., qₙ) we define a
   new matrix, the specialized clause matrix S, by applying the
   following transformation on every row /p/:
    \begin{lstlisting}[mathescape,columns=fullflexible,basicstyle=\fontfamily{lmvtt}\selectfont,]
    for every c ∈ Set of constructors 
        for i ← 1 .. m 
            let kᵢ ← constructor_of($p_{i,1}$) 
            if kᵢ = c then 
                p ← $q_{i,1}$, $q_{i,2}$, ..., $q_{i,n'}$,  $p_{i,2}$, $p_{i,3}$, ..., $p_{i, n}$
    \end{lstlisting}
   Patterns of the form $q_{i,j}$ matches on the values of the
   constructor and we define new fresh variables y₁, y₂, ..., yₐ so
   that the lambda action lᵢ becomes

\begin{lstlisting}[mathescape,columns=fullflexible,basicstyle=\fontfamily{lmvtt}\selectfont,]
    (let (y₁ (field 0 x₁))
         (y₂ (field 1 x₁))
         ...
         (yₐ (field (a-1) x₁))
         lᵢ)
\end{lstlisting}

   and the result of the compilation for the set of constructors
   {c₁, c₂, ..., cₖ} is:

\begin{lstlisting}[mathescape,columns=fullflexible,basicstyle=\fontfamily{lmvtt}\selectfont,]
    switch x₁ with
    case c₁: l₁
    case c₂: l₂
    ...
    case cₖ: lₖ
    default: exit
\end{lstlisting}

3) Orpat rule: there are various strategies for dealing with
   or-patterns. The most naive one is to split the or-patterns.
   For example a row p containing an or-pattern:
   \begin{equation*}
   (p_{i,1}|q_{i,1}|r_{i,1}), p_{i,2}, ..., p_{i,m} → lᵢ
   \end{equation*}
   results in three rows added to the clause matrix
   \begin{equation*}
   p_{i,1}, p_{i,2}, ..., p_{i,m} → lᵢ \\
   \end{equation*}
   \begin{equation*}
   q_{i,1}, p_{i,2}, ..., p_{i,m} → lᵢ \\
   \end{equation*}
   \begin{equation*}
   r_{i,1}, p_{i,2}, ..., p_{i,m} → lᵢ 
   \end{equation*}
4) Mixture rule:
   When none of the previous rules apply the clause matrix P → L is
   split into two clause matrices, the first P₁ → L₁ that is the
   largest prefix matrix for which one of the three previous rules
   apply, and P₂ → L₂ containing the remaining rows. The algorithm is
   applied to both matrices.

* Correctness of the algorithm
Running a program tₛ or its translation 〚tₛ〛 against an input vₛ
produces as a result a result /r/ in the following way:
| ( 〚tₛ〛ₛ(vₛ) = Cₛ(vₛ) ) → r
| tₛ(vₛ) → r
Likewise
| ( 〚tₜ〛ₜ(vₜ) = Cₜ(vₜ) ) → r
| tₜ(vₜ) → r
where result r ::= guard list * (Match blackbox | NoMatch | Absurd)
and guard ::= blackbox.

Having defined equivalence between two inputs of which one is
expressed in the source language and the other in the target language
  vₛ ≃ vₜ    (TODO define, this talks about the representation of source values in the target)

we can define the equivalence between a couple of programs or a couple
ofconstraint trees 
| tₛ ≃ tₜ := ∀vₛ≃vₜ, tₛ(vₛ) = tₜ(vₜ)
| Cₛ ≃ Cₜ := ∀vₛ≃vₜ, Cₛ(vₛ) = Cₜ(vₜ)

The proposed equivalence algorithm that works on a couple of
constraint trees is returns either /Yes/ or /No(vₛ, vₜ)/ where vₛ and
vₜ are a couple of possible counter examples for which the constraint
trees produce a different result.

** Statements
Theorem. We say that a translation of a source program to a constraint tree
is correct when for every possible input, the source program and its
respective constraint tree produces the same result

| ∀vₛ, tₛ(vₛ) = 〚tₛ〛ₛ(vₛ)


Likewise, for the target language:

| ∀vₜ, tₜ(vₜ) = 〚tₜ〛ₜ(vₜ)

Definition: in the presence of guards we can say that two results are
equivalent modulo the guards queue, written /r₁ ≃gs r₂/, when:
| (gs₁, r₁) ≃gs (gs₂, r₂)  ⇔  (gs₁, r₁) = (gs₂ ++ gs, r₂)

Definition: we say that Cₜ covers the input space /S/, written
/covers(Cₜ, S) when every value vₛ∈S is a valid input to the
constraint tree Cₜ. (TODO: rephrase)

Theorem: Given an input space /S/ and a couple of constraint trees, where
the target constraint tree Cₜ covers the input space /S/, we say that
the two constraint trees are equivalent when:

| (equiv S Cₛ Cₜ gs = Yes) ∧ covers(Cₜ, S) ⇒ ∀vₛ≃vₜ ∈ S, Cₛ(vₛ) ≃gs Cₜ(vₜ)

Similarly we say that a couple of constraint trees in the presence of
an input space /S/ are /not/ equivalent when:

| (equiv S Cₛ Cₜ gs = No(vₛ,vₜ) ∧ covers(Cₜ, S) ⇒ vₛ≃vₜ ∈ S ∧ Cₛ(vₛ) ≠gs Cₜ(vₜ)

Corollary: For a full input space /S/, that is the universe of the
target program we say:

| (equiv S [|tₛ|]ₛ [|tₜ|]ₜ ∅ = Yes)  ⇔  tₛ ≃ tₜ


*** Proof of the correctness of the translation from source programs to source constraint trees

We define a source term tₛ as a collection of patterns pointing to blackboxes
| tₛ ::= (p → bb)^{i∈I}

A pattern is defined as either a constructor pattern, an or pattern or
a constant pattern
| p ::= | K(pᵢ)ⁱ, i ∈ I | (p|q) | n ∈ ℕ

A constraint tree is defined as either a Leaf, a Failure terminal or
an intermediate node with different children sharing the same accessor /a/
and an optional fallback.
Failure is emitted only when the patterns don't cover the whole set of
possible input values /S/. The fallback is not needed when the user
doesn't use a wildcard pattern.

| Cₛ ::= Leaf bb | Node(a, (Kᵢ → Cᵢ)^{i∈S} , C?)
| a ::= Here | n.a
| vₛ ::= K(vᵢ)^{i∈I} | n ∈ ℕ

\begin{comment}
Are K and Here clear here?
\end{comment}

We define the decomposition matrix /mₛ/ as
| SMatrix mₛ := (aⱼ)^{j∈J}, ((pᵢⱼ)^{j∈J} → bbᵢ)^{i∈I}
Given that the decomposition matrix is computed from source terms, we
need to prove that it respects:
| ∀(vⱼ)^{j∈J}, mₛ(vⱼ)ʲ = 〚mₛi 〛(vⱼ)ʲ

v(Here) = v
K(vᵢ)ⁱ(k.a) = vₖ(a) if k ∈ [0;n[

We also said that
(Leaf bb)(v) := Match bb
(Node(a, (kᵢ → cᵢ)ⁱ, c_{fallback}))(v)
    let v(a) be K(vⱼ)ʲ
        if k ∈ {Kᵢ}ⁱ then  C_{min{i}|k=kᵢ}(v)
        else c_{fallback}(v)