Consider the following toy representation for the untyped lambda calculus:
Require Import String.
Open Scope string_scope.
Inductive term : Set :=
| Var : string -> term
| Abs : string -> term -> term
| App : term -> term -> term.
Fixpoint print (term : term) :=
match term return string with
| Var id => id
| Abs id term => "\" ++ id ++ " " ++ print term
| App term1 term2 => print_inner term1 ++ " " ++ print_inner term2
end
with print_inner (term : term) :=
match term return string with
| Var id => id
| term => "(" ++ print term ++ ")"
end.
Type-checking print fails with the following error:
Recursive definition of print_inner is ill-formed.
[...]
Recursive call to print has principal argument equal to "term" instead of "t".
What would be the most readable/ergonomic/efficient way of implementing this?
You can use nested recursive functions:
Fixpoint print (tm : term) : string :=
match tm return string with
| Var id => id
| Abs id body => "\" ++ id ++ ". " ++ print body
| App tm1 tm2 =>
let fix print_inner (tm : term) : string :=
match tm return string with
| Var id => id
| _ => "(" ++ print tm ++ ")"
end
in
print_inner tm1 ++ " " ++ print_inner tm2
end.
This approach can be extended to handle pretty-printing -- the usual convention not to print parentheses in expressions like x y z (application associates to the left) or to print \x. \y. x y as \xy. x y:
Definition in_parens (stm : string) : string := "(" ++ stm ++ ")".
Fixpoint pprint (tm : term) : string :=
match tm with
| Var id => id
| Abs id tm1 =>
let fix pprint_nested_abs (tm : term) : string :=
match tm with
| Abs id tm1 => id ++ pprint_nested_abs tm1
| _ => ". " ++ pprint tm
end
in
"\" ++ id ++ pprint_nested_abs tm1
(* e.g. (\x. x x) (\x. x x) *)
| App ((Abs _ _) as tm1) ((Abs _ _) as tm2) =>
in_parens (pprint tm1) ++ " " ++ in_parens (pprint tm2)
(* variable scopes *)
| App ((Abs _ _) as tm1) tm2 => in_parens (pprint tm1) ++ " " ++ pprint tm2
(* `x \x. x` looks ugly, `x (\x. x)` is better; also handle `x (y z)` *)
| App tm1 ((Abs _ _) as tm2) | App tm1 (App _ _ as tm2) =>
pprint tm1 ++ " " ++ in_parens (pprint tm2)
| App tm1 tm2 => pprint tm1 ++ " " ++ pprint tm2
end.
By the way, CPDT has some material on the mutual recursion vs. nested recursion, but in a different setting.