almathaler / katsolver2

KATSolver2

Running Instructions:

[core], [menhir], and [ocamllex] are needed for both implementations (as is a version of the OCaml compiler. This was made with Ocaml 5.1.1).

To install [core], run: [opam install core]

To install [menhir], run: [opam instasll menhir]

To use [ka_solver], run: [dune exec ka_solver help] from the [ka_solver] directory

To use [kat_solver], run: [dune exec kat_solver help] from [kat_solver]

More info:

[ka_solver] is a simple implementation of a kleene algebra expression equivalence checker, using bisimulations on regular set automatons to determine equivalence. This uses ideas from class and from https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs6861/2024sp/Papers/Pous.pdf.

[kat_solver] is also a simple implementation of a KAT expression equivalence checker, using bisimulations on guarded string set automatons to determine equivalence. This uses more ideas from https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs6861/2024sp/Papers/Pous.pdf, except memoization.

There already exists a KAT expression equivalence checker made by Pous at https://perso.ens-lyon.fr/damien.pous/symbolickat/. I don't add anything new and this implementation is not nearly as fast or efficient; regardless, this was a useful and time-intensive exercise. In this project I thought about translating concepts from class (automaton exploration, bisimulations + coalgebras, Brzozowski derivatives) into actual code. Most of all it took a while to plan the data structures needed for representing symbolic derivatives. Even though the paper is quite explicit it took a few read-throughs for me to understand what objects the symbolic derivatives dealt with.