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A Tutorial on Co-induction and Functional Programming

  • Conference paper
Book cover Functional Programming, Glasgow 1994

Part of the book series: Workshops in Computing ((WORKSHOPS COMP.))

Abstract

Co-induction is an important tool for reasoning about unbounded structures. This tutorial explains the foundations of co-induction, and shows how it justifies intuitive arguments about lazy streams, of central importance to lazy functional programmers. We explain from first principles a theory based on a new formulation of bisimilarity for functional programs, which coincides exactly with Morris-style contextual equivalence. We show how to prove properties of lazy streams by co-induction and derive Bird and Wadler’s Take Lemma, a well-known proof technique for lazy streams.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. New Museums Site, University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, Cambridge, CB2 3QG, UK

    Andrew D. Gordon (Royal Society University Research Fellow)

Authors
  1. Andrew D. Gordon
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computing Science, Glasgow University, G12 8QQ, Glasgow, Scotland

    Kevin Hammond PhD , David N. Turner BSc  & Patrick M. Sansom BSc, PhD ,  & 

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© 1995 Springer-Verlag London

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Gordon, A.D. (1995). A Tutorial on Co-induction and Functional Programming. In: Hammond, K., Turner, D.N., Sansom, P.M. (eds) Functional Programming, Glasgow 1994. Workshops in Computing. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3573-9_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3573-9_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-19914-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-3573-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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