research-article

C++ concepts as institutions: a specification view on concepts

Authors:

Marcin Zalewski and

Sibylle SchuppAuthors Info & Claims

LCSD '07: Proceedings of the 2007 Symposium on Library-Centric Software Design

October 2007

Pages 76 - 87

https://doi.org/10.1145/1512762.1512770

Published: 21 October 2007 Publication History

Abstract

With the recent developments in the C++ language, concepts are mostly discussed as a form of constrained polymorphism. Yet, concepts also allow for an alternative, implementation-independent view that comes from their origin in (algebraic) specification languages. In this paper, we return to this specification view on concepts and formalize C++ concepts as institutions, a well-established notion for precise specifications of software components. We argue that institutions form a suitable theoretical framework for software systems like libraries where the different parts establish relations that are captured by different logics, or no formal logic at all. Assuming the C++ concept descriptions, concept maps, and axioms as in the draft currently accepted by the C++ standardization committee, we show that concept descriptions and axioms form an institution (with equational logic) but also, and perhaps surprisingly, that concept descriptions and concept maps form an institution (with no formal logic).

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Cited By

Voufo LZalewski MLumsdaine AMagalhäes JRompf T(2014)Scoping rules on a platterProceedings of the 10th ACM SIGPLAN workshop on Generic programming10.1145/2633628.2633633(59-70)Online publication date: 26-Aug-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2633628.2633633
David VHaveraaen M(2009)Concepts as Syntactic SugarProceedings of the 2009 Ninth IEEE International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation10.1109/SCAM.2009.26(147-156)Online publication date: 20-Sep-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/SCAM.2009.26

C++ concepts as institutions: a specification view on concepts
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cover image ACM Conferences

LCSD '07: Proceedings of the 2007 Symposium on Library-Centric Software Design

October 2007

125 pages

ISBN:9781605580869

DOI:10.1145/1512762

Program Chairs:
Jeremy G. Siek
University of Colorado
,
Frank Tip
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center

Copyright © 2007 ACM.

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Published: 21 October 2007

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Cited By

Voufo LZalewski MLumsdaine AMagalhäes JRompf T(2014)Scoping rules on a platterProceedings of the 10th ACM SIGPLAN workshop on Generic programming10.1145/2633628.2633633(59-70)Online publication date: 26-Aug-2014
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2633628.2633633
David VHaveraaen M(2009)Concepts as Syntactic SugarProceedings of the 2009 Ninth IEEE International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation10.1109/SCAM.2009.26(147-156)Online publication date: 20-Sep-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/SCAM.2009.26

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