ChengsongTanPhdThesis/main.tex
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   289 \begin{abstract}
   289 \begin{abstract}
   290 \addchaptertocentry{\abstractname} % Add the abstract to the table of contents
   290 \addchaptertocentry{\abstractname} % Add the abstract to the table of contents
   291 %\addchap{Abstract} 
   291 %\addchap{Abstract} 
   292 This thesis is about regular expressions and derivatives. It combines functional algorithms and their formal verification in the Isabelle/HOL theorem prover. 
   292 This thesis is about regular expressions and derivatives. It combines functional algorithms and their formal verification in the Isabelle/HOL theorem prover. 
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   293 Theoretical results say that regular expression matching should be 
   294 Theoretical results say that regular expression matching should be linear with respect to the input. Under a certain class of regular expressions and inputs though, practical implementations often suffer from non-linear or even exponential running time, allowing ReDoS (regular expression denial-of-service ) attacks. This makes levers with formalised properties such as correctness and time complexity appealing.
   294 linear with respect to the input. 
       
   295 However with some regular expressions and inputs, existing implementations 
       
   296 often suffer from non-linear or even exponential running time, 
       
   297 allowing for example ReDoS (regular expression denial-of-service ) attacks. 
       
   298 To avoid these attacks, lexers with formalised correctness and running time related
       
   299 properties become appealing because the guarantee applies to all inputs, not just 
       
   300 a few empirical test cases.
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   296 Sulzmann and Lu describe a lexing algorithm that calculates Brzozowski derivatives using bitcodes annotated to regular expressions. Their algorithm generates POSIX values which encode the information of how a regular expression matches a string—that is, which part of the string is matched by which part of the regular expression. This information is needed in the context of lexing in order to extract and to classify tokens. The purpose of the bitcodes is to generate POSIX values incrementally while derivatives are calculated. They also help with designing an “aggressive” simplification function that keeps the size of derivatives finitely bounded. Without simplification the size of some derivatives can grow arbitrarily big resulting in an extremely slow lexing algorithm. 
   302 Sulzmann and Lu describe a lexing algorithm that calculates Brzozowski derivatives using bitcodes annotated to regular expressions. Their algorithm generates POSIX values which encode the information of how a regular expression matches a string—that is, which part of the string is matched by which part of the regular expression. This information is needed in the context of lexing in order to extract and to classify tokens. The purpose of the bitcodes is to generate POSIX values incrementally while derivatives are calculated. They also help with designing an “aggressive” simplification function that keeps the size of derivatives finitely bounded. Without simplification the size of some derivatives can grow arbitrarily big resulting in an extremely slow lexing algorithm. 
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   298 In this thesis we describe a variant of Sulzmann and Lu’s algorithm: Our variant is a recursive functional program, whereas Sulzmann and Lu’s version involves a fixpoint construction. We (i) prove in Isabelle/HOL that our algorithm is correct and generates unique POSIX values; we also (ii) establish a finite bound for the size of the derivatives. 
   304 In this thesis we describe a variant of Sulzmann and Lu’s algorithm: Our variant is a recursive functional program, whereas Sulzmann and Lu’s version involves a fixpoint construction. We (i) prove in Isabelle/HOL that our algorithm is correct and generates unique POSIX values; we also (ii) establish a finite bound for the size of the derivatives. 
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