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Notions of well-definedness


{-# OPTIONS --without-K --exact-split --safe #-}

module Base.Equality.Welldefined where

-- Imports from Agda and the Agda Standard Library  -------------------------------------
open import Agda.Primitive  using () renaming ( Set to Type ; Setω to Typeω )
open import Data.Fin        using ( Fin ; toℕ )
open import Data.Product    using ( _,_ ; _×_ )
open import Data.List       using ( List ; [] ; [_] ; _∷_ ; _++_ )
open import Function        using ( _$_ ; _∘_ ; id )
open import Level           using ( _⊔_ ; suc ; Level )

open import Axiom.Extensionality.Propositional     using () renaming ( Extensionality to funext )
open import Relation.Binary.PropositionalEquality  using ( _≡_ ; refl ; module ≡-Reasoning ; cong )

-- Imports from agda-algebras -----------------------------------------------------------
open import Overture        using ( _≈_ ; _⁻¹ ; Op )
open import Base.Functions  using ( A×A→B-to-Fin2A→B ; UncurryFin2 ; UncurryFin3 )

private variable  ι α β 𝓥 ρ : Level

Strongly well-defined operations

We now describe an extensionality principle that seems weaker than function extensionality, but still (probably) not provable in MLTT. (We address this and other questions below.) We call this the principle strong well-definedness of operations. We will encounter situations in which this weaker extensionality principle suffices as a substitute for function extensionality.

Suppose we have a function whose domain is a function type, say, I → A. For example, inhabitants of the type Op defined above are such functions. (Recall, the domain of inhabitants of type Op I A := (I → A) → A is I → A.)

Of course, operations of type Op I A are well-defined in the sense that equal inputs result in equal outputs.


welldef : {A : Type α}{I : Type 𝓥}(f : Op A I)   u v  u  v  f u  f v
welldef f u v = cong f

A stronger form of well-definedness of operations is to suppose that point-wise equal inputs lead to the same output. In other terms, we could suppose that for all f : Op I A, we have f u ≡ f v whenever ∀ i → u i ≡ v i holds. We call this formalize this notation in the following type.


swelldef :  ι α  Type (suc (α  ι))
swelldef ι α =   {I : Type ι}{A : Type α}(f : Op A I)(u v : I  A)
               u  v  f u  f v

funext→swelldef : {α 𝓥 : Level}  funext 𝓥 α  swelldef 𝓥 α
funext→swelldef fe f u v ptweq = welldef f u v (fe ptweq)

-- level-polymorphic version
SwellDef : Typeω
SwellDef = (α β : Level)  swelldef α β

There are certain situations in which a (seemingly) weaker principle than function extensionality suffices.

Here are the more general versions of the foregoing that are not restricted to (I-ary) operations on A (of type (I → A) → A), but handle also (I-ary) functions from A^I to B (of type (I → A) → B).


swelldef' :  ι α β  Type (suc (ι  α  β))
swelldef' ι α β =   {I : Type ι} {A : Type α} {B : Type β}
                  (f : (I  A)  B) {u v : I  A}  u  v  f u  f v

funext' :  α β  Type (suc (α  β))
funext' α β =  {A : Type α } {B : Type β } {f g : A  B}  f  g  f  g

-- `funext ι α` implies `swelldef ι α β`        (Note the universe levels!)
funext'→swelldef' : funext' ι α  swelldef' ι α β
funext'→swelldef' fe f ptweq = cong f (fe ptweq)

 -- `swelldef ι α (ι ⊔ α)` implies `funext ι α`   (Note the universe levels!)
swelldef'→funext' : swelldef' ι α (ι  α)  funext' ι α
swelldef'→funext' wd ptweq = wd _$_ ptweq

Questions

  1. Does the converse swelldef→funext hold or is swelldef is strictly weaker than funext?
  2. If swelldef is strictly weaker than funext, then can we prove it in MLTT?
  3. If the answer to 2 is no in general, then for what types I can we prove swelldef 𝓥 _ {I}?

Notice that the implication swelldef → funext holds if we restrict the universe level β to be ι ⊔ α. This is because to go from swelldef to funext, we must apply the swelldef premise to the special case in which f is the identify function on I → A, which of course has type (I → A) → (I → A).

This is possible if we take swelldef ι α (ι ⊔ α) as the premise (so that we can assume B is I → A).

It is NOT possible if we merely assume swelldef ι α β for some β (not necessarily ι ⊔ α) and for some B (not necessarily I → A).

In the agda-algebras library, swelldef is used exclusively on operation type, so that B ≡ A. I believe there is no way to prove that swelldef ι α α implies funext ι α.

Some new ideas

It seems unlikely that we could prove swelldef in MLTT because, on the face of it, to prove f u ≡ f v, we need u ≡ v, but we only have ∀ i → u i ≡ v i.

swelldef-proof : ∀ {I : Type ι}{A : Type α}{B : Type β}
 →                 (f : (I → A) → B){u v : I → A}
 →                 (∀ i → u i ≡ v i) → f u ≡ f v
swelldef-proof {I = I}{A}{B} f {u}{v} x = {!!}  --   <== we are stuck

However, we can prove swelldef in MLTT for certain types at least, using a zipper argument.

This certainly works in the special case of finitary functions, say, f : (Fin n → A) → B for some n.

I expect this proof will generalize to countable arities, but I have yet to formally prove it.

If f is finitary, then we can Curry and work instead with the function

(Curry f) : A → A → A → ... → A → B

(for some appropriate number of arrow; i.e., number of arguments).

The idea is to partially apply f, and inductively build up a proof of f u ≡ f v, like so.

  1. f (u 0) ≡ f (v 0) (by u 0 ≡ v 0),
  2. f (u 0)(u 1) ≡ f (v 0)(v 1) (by 1. and u 1 ≡ v 1), ⋮ n. f (u 0) … (u(n-1)) ≡ f (v 0) … (v(n-1)) (by n-1 and u(n-1) ≡ v(n-1)). ⋮

Actually, the proof should probably go in the other direction,

⋮ n. f (u 0) … (u(n-2))(u(n-1)) ≡ f (u 0) … (u(n-2))(v(n-1)) n-1. f (u 0) (u(n-2))(u(n-1)) ≡ f (v 0) … (v(n-2))(v(n-1))

  1. f (u 0)(u 1) ≡ f (v 0)(v 1)
  2. f (u 0) ≡ f (v 0)

To formalize this, let’s begin with the simplest case, that is, when f : A → A → B, so f is essentially of type (Fin 2 → A) → B.

However, we still need to establish a one-to-one correspondence between the types (Fin 2 → A) → B and A → A → B, (and A × A → B), which turns out to be nontrivial.


module _ {A : Type α}{B : Type β} where
 open Fin renaming ( zero to z ; suc to s )
 open ≡-Reasoning

 A×A-wd :  (f : A × A  B)(u v : Fin 2  A)
          u  v  (A×A→B-to-Fin2A→B f) u  (A×A→B-to-Fin2A→B f) v

 A×A-wd f u v u≈v = Goal
  where
  zip1 :  {a x y}  x  y  f (a , x)  f (a , y)
  zip1 refl = refl

  zip2 :  {x y b}  x  y  f (x , b)  f (y , b)
  zip2 refl = refl

  Goal : (A×A→B-to-Fin2A→B f) u  (A×A→B-to-Fin2A→B f) v
  Goal =  (A×A→B-to-Fin2A→B f) u  ≡⟨ refl 
          f (u z , u (s z))       ≡⟨ zip1 (u≈v (s z)) 
          f (u z , v (s z))       ≡⟨ zip2 (u≈v z) 
          f (v z , v (s z))       ≡⟨ refl 
          (A×A→B-to-Fin2A→B f) v  

 Fin2-wd :  (f : A  A  B)(u v : Fin 2  A)
           u  v  (UncurryFin2 f) u  (UncurryFin2 f) v

 Fin2-wd f u v u≈v = Goal
  where
  zip1 :  {a x y}  x  y  f a x  f a y
  zip1 refl = refl

  zip2 :  {x y b}  x  y  f x b  f y b
  zip2 refl = refl

  Goal : (UncurryFin2 f) u  (UncurryFin2 f) v
  Goal = (UncurryFin2 f) u  ≡⟨ refl 
         f (u z) (u (s z))  ≡⟨ zip1 (u≈v (s z)) 
         f (u z) (v (s z))  ≡⟨ zip2 (u≈v z) 
         f (v z) (v (s z))  ≡⟨ refl 
         (UncurryFin2 f) v  


 Fin3-wd :  (f : A  A  A  B)(u v : Fin 3  A)
           u  v  (UncurryFin3 f) u  (UncurryFin3 f) v

 Fin3-wd f u v u≈v = Goal
  where
  zip1 :  {a b x y}  x  y  f a b x  f a b y
  zip1 refl = refl

  zip2 :  {a b x y}  x  y  f a x b  f a y b
  zip2 refl = refl

  zip3 :  {a b x y}  x  y  f x a b  f y a b
  zip3 refl = refl

  Goal : (UncurryFin3 f) u  (UncurryFin3 f) v
  Goal = (UncurryFin3 f) u                ≡⟨ refl 
         f (u z) (u (s z)) (u (s (s z)))  ≡⟨ zip1 (u≈v (s (s z))) 
         f (u z) (u (s z)) (v (s (s z)))  ≡⟨ zip2 (u≈v (s z)) 
         f (u z) (v (s z)) (v (s (s z)))  ≡⟨ zip3 (u≈v z) 
         f (v z) (v (s z)) (v (s (s z)))  ≡⟨ refl 
         (UncurryFin3 f) v                

 -- NEXT: try to prove (f : (Fin 2 → A) → B)(u v : Fin 2 → A) →  u ≈ v → f u ≡ f v

module _ {A : Type α}{B : Type β} where

 ListA→B :  (f : List A  B)(u v : List A)  u  v  f u  f v
 ListA→B f u .u refl = refl

 CurryListA : (List A  B)  (List A  A  B)
 CurryListA f [] a = f [ a ]
 CurryListA f (x  l) a = f ((x  l) ++ [ a ]) 

 CurryListA' : (List A  B)  (A  List A  B)
 CurryListA' f a [] = f [ a ]
 CurryListA' f a (x  l) = f ([ a ] ++ (x  l))

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