Generalized Refocusing: From Hybrid Strategies to Abstract Machines

Abstract

We present a generalization of the refocusing procedure that provides a generic method for deriving an abstract machine from a specification of a reduction semantics satisfying simple initial conditions. The proposed generalization is applicable to a class of reduction semantics encoding hybrid strategies as well as uniform strategies handled by the original refocusing method. The resulting machine is proved to correctly trace (i.e., bisimulate in smaller steps) the input reduction semantics. The procedure and the correctness proofs have been formalized in the Coq proof assistant.