In the thesis, we explore reasoning about and handling of algebraic effects. Those are computational effects, which admit a representation by an equational theory. Their examples include exceptions, nondeterminism, interactive input and output, state, and their combinations. In the first part of the thesis, we propose a logic for algebraic effects. We begin by introducing the a-calculus, which is a minimal equational logic with the purpose of exposing distinct features of algebraic effects. Next, we give a powerful logic, which builds on results of the a-calculus. The types and terms of the logic are the ones of Levy’s call-by-push-value framework, while the reasoning rules are the standard ones of a classical multi-sorted first-order logic with predicates, extended with predicate fixed points and two principles that describe the universality of free models of the theory representing the effects at hand. Afterwards, we show the use of the logic in reasoning about properties of effectful programs, and in the translation of Moggi’s computational ¸-calculus, Hennessy-Milner logic, and Moggi’s refinement of Pitts’s evaluation logic. In the second part of the thesis, we introduce handlers of algebraic effects. Those not only provide an algebraic treatment of exception handlers, but generalise them to arbitrary algebraic effects. Each such handler corresponds to a model of the theory representing the effects, while the handling construct is interpreted by the homomorphism induced by the universal property of the free model. We use handlers to describe many previously unrelated concepts from both theory and practice, for example CSS renaming and hiding, stream redirection, timeout, and rollback.

We study the interplay between dependent types and computational effects, two important areas of modern programming language research. On the one hand, dependent types underlie proof assistants such as Coq and functional programming languages such as Agda, Idris, and F*, providing programmers a means for encoding detailed specifications of program behaviour using types. On the other hand, computational effects, such as exceptions, nondeterminism, state, I/O, probability, etc., are integral to all widely-used programming languages, ranging from imperative languages, such as C, to functional languages, such as ML and Haskell. Separately, dependent types and computational effects both come with rigorous mathematical foundations, dependent types in the effect-free setting and computational effects in the simply typed setting. Their combination, however, has received much less attention and no similarly exhaustive theory has been developed. In this thesis we address this shortcoming by providing a comprehensive treatment of the combination of these two fields, and demonstrating that they admit a mathematically elegant and natural combination. Specifically, we develop a core effectful dependently typed language, eMLTT, based on Martin-L¨of’s intensional type theory and a clear separation between (effect-free) values and (possibly effectful) computations familiar from simply typed languages such as Levy’s Call-By-Push-Value and Egger et al.’s Enriched Effect Calculus. A novel feature of our language is the computational S-type, which we use to give a uniform treatment of type-dependency in sequential composition. In addition, we define and study a class of category-theoretic models, called fibred adjunction models, that are suitable for defining a sound and complete interpretation of eMLTT. Specifically, fibred adjunction models naturally combine standard category-theoretic models of dependent types (split closed comprehension categories) with those of computational effects (adjunctions). We discuss and study various examples of these models, including a domain-theoretic model so as to extend eMLTT with general recursion. We also investigate a dependently typed generalisation of the algebraic treatment of computational effects by showing how to extend eMLTT with fibred algebraic effects and their handlers. In particular, we specify fibred algebraic effects using a dependently typed generalisation of Plotkin and Pretnar’s effect theories, enabling us to capture precise notions of computation such as state with location-dependent store types and dependently typed update monads. For handlers, we observe that their conventional term-level definition leads to unsound program equivalences becoming derivable in languages that include a notion of homomorphism, such as eMLTT. To solve this problem, we propose a novel type-based treatment of handlers via a new computation type, the user-defined algebra type, which pairs a value type (the carrier) with a family of value terms (the operations). This type internalises Plotkin and Pretnar’s insight that handlers denote algebras for a given equational theory of computational effects. We demonstrate the generality of our type-based treatment of handlers by showing that their conventional term-level presentation can be routinely derived, and this treatment provides a useful mechanism for reasoning about effectful computations. Finally, we show that these extensions of eMLTT can be soundly interpreted in a fibred adjunction model based on the families of sets fibration and models of Lawvere theories.

This thesis presents Topological Domain Theory as a powerful and flexible framework for denotational semantics. Topological Domain Theory models a wide range of type constructions and can interpret many computational features. Furthermore, it has close connections to established frameworks for denotational semantics, as well as to well-studied mathematical theories, such as topology and computable analysis. We begin by describing the categories of Topological Domain Theory, and their categorical structure. In particular, we recover the basic constructions of domain theory, such as products, function spaces, fixed points and recursive types, in the context of Topological Domain Theory. As a central contribution, we give a detailed account of how computational effects can be modelled in Topological Domain Theory. Following recent work of Plotkin and Power, who proposed to construct effect monads via free algebra functors, this is done by showing that free algebras for a large class of parametrised equational theories exist in Topological Domain Theory. These parametrised equational theories are expressive enough to generate most of the standard examples of effect monads. Moreover, the free algebras in Topological Domain Theory are obtained by an explicit inductive construction, using only basic topological and set-theoretical principles. We also give a comparison of Topological and Classical Domain Theory. The category of omega-continuous dcpos embeds into Topological Domain Theory, and we prove that this embedding preserves the basic domain-theoretic constructions in most cases. We show that the classical powerdomain constructions on omega-continuous dcpos, including the probabilistic powerdomain, can be recovered in Topological Domain Theory. Finally, we give a synthetic account of Topological Domain Theory. We show that Topological Domain Theory is a specific model of Synthetic Domain Theory in the realizability topos over Scott's graph model. We give internal characterisations of the categories of Topological Domain Theory in this realizability topos, and prove the corresponding categories to be internally complete and weakly small. This enables us to show that Topological Domain Theory can model the polymorphic lambda-calculus, and to obtain a richer collection of free algebras than those constructed earlier. In summary, this thesis shows that Topological Domain Theory supports a wide range of semantic constructions, including the standard domain-theoretic constructions, computational effects and polymorphism, all within a single setting.

Dans cette thèse, nous visons à formaliser les effets calculatoires. En effet, les langages de programmation les plus utilisés impliquent différentes sortes d'effets de bord: changement d'état, exceptions, entrées / sorties, non-déterminisme, etc. Ils peuvent apporter facilité et flexibilité dans le processus de codage. Cependant, le problème est de prendre en compte les effets lorsque l'on veut prouver des propriétés de programmes. La principale difficulté dans ce genre de preuve de programmes est le décalage entre la syntaxe des opérations avec effets de bord et leur interprétation. Typiquement, un fragment de programme avec des arguments de type X qui retourne une valeur de type Y n'est pas interprété comme une fonction de X vers Y , à cause des effets.L'approche algébrique la plus connue pour ce problème permet une interprétation des programmes, y compris ceux comportant des effets, en utilisant des monades : l'interprétation est une fonction de X vers T (Y ) où T est une monade. Cette approche a été étendue aux théories de Lawvere et aux "gestionnaires algébriques" (algebraic handlers). Une autre approche, appelée logique décorée, fournit une sémantique équationnelle pour ces programmes. Nous spécialisons l'approche de la logique décorée pour les effets liés à l'état de la mémoire et à la gestion des exceptions en définissant la logique décorée pour les états (L_st) et la logique décorée pour les exceptions (L_exc), respectivement. Elles nous permettent de prouver des propriétés de programmes impliquant de tels effets. Ensuite, nous formalisons ces logiques en Coq et certifions les preuves associées. Ces logiques sont construites de manière à être correctes. En outre, nous introduisons une notion de complétude syntaxique relative d'une théorie dans une logique donnée par rapport à une sous-logique. Nous montrons que la théorie décorée pour les états globaux ainsi que deux théories décorées pour les exceptions sont relativement complets relativement à leur sous-logique pure. Non seulement nous pouvons utiliser le système développé pour prouver des programmes comportant des effets, mais également nous utilisons cette formalisation pour certifier les résultats de complétude obtenus. / In this thesis, we aim to formalize the effects of a computation. Indeed, most used programming languages involve different sorts of effects: state change, exceptions, input/output, non-determinism, etc. They may bring ease and flexibility to the coding process. However, the problem is to take into account the effects when proving the properties of programs. The major difficulty in such kind of reasoning is the mismatch between the syntax of operations with effects and their interpretation. Typically, a piece of program with arguments in X that returns a value in Y is not interpreted as a function from X to Y , due to the effects. The best-known algebraic approach to the problem interprets programs including effects with the use of monads: the interpretation is a function from X to T(Y) where T is a monad. This approach has been extendedto Lawvere theories and algebraic handlers. Another approach called, the decorated logic, provides a sort of equational semantics for reasoning about programs with effects. We specialize the approach of decorated logic to the state and the exceptions effects by defining the decorated logic for states (L_st) and the decorated logic for exceptions (L_exc), respectively. This enables us to prove properties of programs involving such effects. Then, we formalize these logics in Coq and certify the related proofs. These logics are built so as to be sound. In addition, we introduce a relative notion of syntactic completeness of a theory in a given logic with respect to a sublogic. We prove that the decorated theory for the global states as well as two decorated theories for exceptions are syntactically complete relatively to their pure sublogics. These proofs are certified in Coq as applications of ourgeneric frameworks.