Beluga

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Beluga

Beluga is a functional programming language designed for reasoning about formal systems. It features direct support for object-level binding constructs using higher order abstract syntax and treats contexts as first class objects.

Getting started

Prerequisites

Install the OCaml package manager (opam) by following the instructions at http://opam.ocaml.org/doc/Install.html.

Optionally, rlwrap may be installed to greatly improve the Beluga interactive mode user experience.

Installation from the opam repository

Beluga may be installed in the current opam switch using:

opam install beluga
eval $(opam env)

Alternatively, an opam switch may be created specifically for Beluga using:

mkdir Beluga
cd Beluga
opam switch create . --empty
opam install beluga
eval $(opam env)

You can now run Beluga programs using the beluga executable:

beluga path/to/program.bel

Installation from the source

To build Beluga from the source code and install it in its own opam switch:

git clone https://github.com/Beluga-lang/Beluga.git Beluga
cd Beluga
opam switch create . --empty
opam install .

The beluga executable is then accessible from the newly created opam switch.

Development

To start working on Beluga, clone the repository and create an opam switch with the dependencies installed:

git clone https://github.com/Beluga-lang/Beluga.git Beluga
cd Beluga
opam switch create . --deps-only --with-test --yes
eval $(opam env)

Use make to compile, make test to compile and run the tests, and make clean to clean the directory of compilation results. Use ./LINT to find code style errors.

To use any of the compiled executables as if they were installed from opam, use dune exec [executable]. For instance, you can run Beluga programs using the compiled development version of beluga with:

dune exec beluga path/to/program.bel

You can run a Harpoon session using the compiled development version of harpoon with:

dune exec harpoon -- --sig path/to/program.bel

See the Makefile for other available development commands.

Interactive Mode

For interactive proofs, we recommend using Harpoon. A detailed list of commands and tactics is available here.

Beluga-mode for GNU Emacs

Beluga includes a major mode for programming in Emacs. The elisp file is located in the tools directory. To configure Beluga-mode:

1. Update your ~/.emacs or ~/.emacs.d/init.el file with the lines written below. XEmacs users must update ~/.emacs or ~/.xemacs/init.el with the same text. Create any of these files if they do not exist already.

   • You should replace path/to/beluga with the actual path of the Beluga directory.

     (add-to-list 'load-path "path/to/beluga/tools/")
     (load "beluga-mode.el")
     

   • NOTE: Feel free to move the beluga-mode.el file to another directory so long as you add its location to the Emacs load-path.

2. Restart Emacs. Emacs will now launch in Beluga-mode automatically when you open a Beluga program.