Time bounds for general function pointers

Abstract

We develop a logic of explicit time resource bounds for a language with function pointers and semantic assertions. We apply our logic to examples containing nontrivial "higher-order" uses of function pointers and we prove soundness with respect to a standard operational semantics. Our core technique is very compact and may be applicable to other resource bounding problems, and is the first application of stepindexed models in which the outermost quantifier is existential instead of universal. Our results are machine checked in Coq. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.