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Transcendental Syntax

The transcendental syntax is a method of constructing logical abstractions from a low-level elementary and "logic-agnostic" language.

This elementary language we use to build abstractions is called "stellar resolution" and its elementary objects corresponding to programs are called "constellations".

Those constellations are used in a higher-level language called "Stellogen" in which notions such as proofs and formulas are defined (this is basically a metaprogramming language for constellations). By the proof-as-program correspondence, this can be extended to programs and types.

Stellar resolution

The stellar resolution (RS) is a model of computation introduced by Jean-Yves Girard [1] in his transcendental syntax project as a basis for the study of the computational foundations of logic. It has been mainly developed by Eng later in his PhD thesis [2].

It can be understood from several points of view:

  • it is a logic-agnostic, asynchronous and very general version of Robinson's first-order resolution with disjunctive clauses, which is used in logic programming;
  • it is a very elementary logic-agnostic constraint programming language;
  • it is a non-planar generalization of Wang tiles (or LEGO bricks) using terms instead of colours and term unification instead of colour matching;
  • it is a model of interactive agents behaving like molecules which interact with each other. It can be seen as a generalization of Jonoska's flexible tiles used in DNA computing;
  • it is an assembly language for meaning.

Stellar resolution is very elementary and an interpreter for it can be written in a very concise way since it mostly relies on a unification algorithm.

Learn

This project is still in development, hence the syntax and features are still changing.

Go to https://tsguide.refl.fr/ (guide currently in French only) to learn more about how to play with the current implementation of transcendental syntax.

Use

You can either download a released binary (or ask for a binary) or build the program from sources.

Build from sources

Install opam and OCaml from opam : https://ocaml.org/docs/installing-ocaml

Install dune:

opam install dune

Install dependencies

opam install . --deps-only

Build the project

dune build

Executables are in _build/default/bin/.

Commands

The project provides three programs.

Large Star Collider (LSC)

This program is an interpreter for stellar resolution.

Assume the executable is named lsc.exe. Execute the program with:

./lsc.exe [-options] <inputfile>

or if you use Dune:

dune exec lsc -- [-options] <inputfile>

Interactive collider

Dynamically add, remove, clear stars and make them collide.

Assume the executable is named ilsc.exe. Execute the program with:

./ilsc.exe

or if you use Dune:

dune exec ilsc

The instructions are provided in the program.

Stellogen interpreter

Assume the executable is named sgen.exe. Interpreter Stellogen programs with:

./sgen.exe

or if you use Dune:

dune exec sgen -- <inputfile>

Examples

Some example files with the .stellar extension in /examples are ready to be executed. In Eng's thesis, ways to work with other models of computation are described (Turing machines, pushdown automata, transducers, alternating automata etc).

References