Implementing a Normalizer Using Sized Heterogeneous Types

In the simply-typed lambda-calculus, a hereditary substitution replaces a free variable in a normal form r by another normal form s of type a, removing freshly created redexes on the fly. It can be defined by lexicographic induction on a and r, thus, giving rise to a structurally recursive normalizer for the simply-typed lambda-calculus. We generalize this scheme to simultaneous substitutions, preserving its simple termination argument. We further implement hereditary simultaneous substitutions in a functional programming language with sized heterogeneous inductive types, Fωb, arriving at an interpreter whose termination can be tracked by the type system of its host programming language.