Chiyan Chen

Guarded recursive datatype constructors

We introduce a notion of guarded recursive (g.r.) datatype constructors, generalizing the notion of recursive datatypes in functional programming languages such as ML and Haskell. We address both theoretical and practical issues resulted from this generalization. On one hand, we design a type system to formalize the notion of g.r. datatype constructors and then prove the soundness of the type system. On the other hand, we present some significant applications (e.g., implementing objects, implementing staged computation, etc.) of g.r. datatype constructors, arguing that g.r. datatype constructors can have far-reaching consequences in programming. The main contribution of the paper lies in the recognition and then the formalization of a programming notion that is of both theoretical interest and practical use.

Combining programming with theorem proving

Applied Type System (ATS) is recently proposed as a framework for designing and formalizing (advanced) type systems in support of practical programming. In ATS, the definition of type equality involves a constraint relation, which may or may not be algorithmically decidable. To support practical programming, we adopted a design in the past that imposes certain restrictions on the syntactic form of constraints so that some effective means can be found for solving constraints automatically. Evidently, this is a rather em ad hoc design in its nature. In this design, which we claim to be both novel and practical. Instead of imposing syntactical restrictions on constraints, we provide a means for the programmer to construct proofs that attest to the validity of constraints. In particular, we are to accommodate a programming paradigm that enables the programmer to combine programming with theorem proving. Also we present some concrete examples in support of the practicality of this design.

Meta-programming through typeful code representation

By allowing the programmer to write code that can generate code at run-time, meta-programming offers a powerful approach to program construction. For instance, meta-programming can often be employed to enhance program efficiency and facilitate the construction of generic programs. However, meta-programming, especially in an untyped setting, is notoriously error-prone. In this paper, we aim at making meta-programming less error-prone by providing a type system to facilitate the construction of correct meta-programs. We first introduce some code constructors for constructing typeful code representation in which program variables are represented in terms of deBruijn indexes, and then formally demonstrate how such typeful code representation can be used to support meta-programming. With our approach, a particular interesting feature is that code becomes first-class values, which can be inspected as well as executed at run-time. The main contribution of the paper lies in the recognition and then the formalization of a novel approach to typed meta-programming that is practical, general and flexible.

Implementing Cut Elimination: A Case Study of Simulating Dependent Types in Haskell

Gentzen’s Hauptsatz – cut elimination theorem – in sequent calculi reveals a fundamental property on logic connectives in various logics such as classical logic and intuitionistic logic. In this paper, we implement a procedure in Haskell to perform cut elimination for intuitionistic sequent calculus, where we use types to guarantee that the procedure can only return a cut-free proof of the same sequent when given a proof of a sequent that may contain cuts. The contribution of the paper is two-fold. On the one hand, we present an interesting (and somewhat unexpected) application of the current type system of Haskell, illustrating through a concrete example how some typical use of dependent types can be simulated in Haskell. On the other hand, we identify several problematic issues with such a simulation technique and then suggest some approaches to addressing these issues in Haskell.

Implementing typeful program transformations

The notion of program transformation is ubiquitous in programming language studies on interpreters, compilers, partial evaluators, etc. In order to implement a program transformation, we need to choose a representation in the meta language, that is, the programming language in which we construct programs, for representing object programs, that is, the programs in the object language on which the program transformation is to be performed. In practice, most representations chosen for typed object programs are typeless in the sense that the type of an object program cannot be reflected in the type of its representation. This is unsatisfactory as such typeless representations make it impossible to capture in the type system of the meta language various invariants in a program transformation that are related to the types of object programs. In this paper, we propose an approach to implementing program transformations that makes use of a first-order typeful program representation formed in Dependent ML (DML), where the type of an object program as well as the types of the free variables in the object program can be reflected in the type of the representation of the object program. We introduce some programming techniques needed to handle this typeful program representation, and then present an implementation of a CPS transform function where the relation between the type of an object program and that of its CPS transform is captured in the type system of DML. In a broader context, we claim to have taken a solid step along the line of research on constructing certifying compilers.

A Typeful Approach to Object-Oriented Programming with Multiple Inheritance

The wide practice of objected oriented programming (OOP) in current software practice is evident. Despite extensive studies on typing programming objects, it is still undeniably a challenging research task to design a type system that can satisfactorily account for a variety of features (e.g., binary methods and multiple inheritance) in OOP. In this paper, we present a typeful approach to implementing objects that makes use of a recently introduced notion of guarded datatypes. In particular, we demonstrate how the feature of multiple inheritance can be supported with this approach, presenting a simple and general account for multiple inheritance in a typeful manner.

Distributed meta-programming

Distributed meta-programming (DMP), which allows code to be generated and distributed at run-time, has already become a common practice. However, code generation currently often relies on rather ad hoc approaches that represent code as plain text, making DMP notoriously error-prone. This unfortunate situation is further exacerbated due to issues such as mobility (of code) and locality and heterogeneity (of resources), which complicate testing and debugging drastically.In this paper, we study distributed meta-programming from a type-theoretic perspective, presenting a language to facilitate the construction of programs that may generate and distribute code at run-time. The approach we take makes use of a form of typeful code representation developed in a previous study on meta-programming, and it guarantees statically that only well-typed code (according to some chosen type discipline) can be constructed at run-time and sent to proper locations for execution. We also mention a prototype implementation in support of the practicality of our approach to DMP, providing a solid proof of concept.