Cyrus Omar
PhD. Student- Carnegie Mellon University
Modularly Programmable Syntax and Type Structure
Abstract:
Functional
programming languages like ML descend conceptually from minimal lambda
calculi, but to be pragmatic, expose a concrete syntax and type
structure to programmers of a more elaborate design. Language designers
have many viable choices at this level, as evidenced by the diversity
of dialects that continue to proliferate around these languages. But
language dialects cannot be modularly combined, limiting the choices
available to programmers. We discuss the ongoing design of a new
functional programming language, Verse, designed to decrease the need
for dialects by giving library providers the ability to safely and
modularly express derived concrete syntax and type structure of a
variety of designs atop a minimal type-theoretic internal language.