A type system for Continuation Calculus

Continuation Calculus (CC), introduced by Geron and Geuvers, is a simple foundational model for functional computation. It is closely related to lambda calculus and term rewriting, but it has no variable binding and no pattern matching. It is Turing complete and evaluation is deterministic. Notions like "call-by-value" and "call-by-name" computation are available by choosing appropriate function definitions: e.g. there is a call-by-value and a call-by-name addition function. In the present paper we extend CC with types, to be able to define data types in a canonical way, and functions over these data types, defined by iteration. Data type definitions follow the so-called "Scott encoding" of data, as opposed to the more familiar "Church encoding". The iteration scheme comes in two flavors: a call-by-value and a call-by-name iteration scheme. The call-by-value variant is a double negation variant of call-by-name iteration. The double negation translation allows to move between call-by-name and call-by-value.Comment: In Proceedings CL&C 2014, arXiv:1409.259

Characterisation of Strongly Normalising lambda-mu-Terms

We provide a characterisation of strongly normalising terms of the lambda-mu-calculus by means of a type system that uses intersection and product types. The presence of the latter and a restricted use of the type omega enable us to represent the particular notion of continuation used in the literature for the definition of semantics for the lambda-mu-calculus. This makes it possible to lift the well-known characterisation property for strongly-normalising lambda-terms - that uses intersection types - to the lambda-mu-calculus. From this result an alternative proof of strong normalisation for terms typeable in Parigot's propositional logical system follows, by means of an interpretation of that system into ours.Comment: In Proceedings ITRS 2012, arXiv:1307.784

On continuation-passing transformations and expected cost analysis

We define a continuation-passing style (CPS) translation for a typed \u3bb-calculus with probabilistic choice, unbounded recursion, and a tick operator - for modeling cost. The target language is a (non-probabilistic) \u3bb-calculus, enriched with a type of extended positive reals and a fixpoint operator. We then show that applying the CPS transform of an expression M to the continuation \u3bb v. 0 yields the expected cost of M. We also introduce a formal system for higher-order logic, called EHOL, prove it sound, and show it can derive tight upper bounds on the expected cost of classic examples, including Coupon Collector and Random Walk. Moreover, we relate our translation to Kaminski et al.'s ert-calculus, showing that the latter can be recovered by applying our CPS translation to (a generalization of) the classic embedding of imperative programs into \u3bb-calculus. Finally, we prove that the CPS transform of an expression can also be used to compute pre-expectations and to reason about almost sure termination

A Calculus for Scoped Effects & Handlers

Algebraic effects & handlers have become a standard approach for side-effects in functional programming. Their modular composition with other effects and clean separation of syntax and semantics make them attractive to a wide audience. However, not all effects can be classified as algebraic; some need a more sophisticated handling. In particular, effects that have or create a delimited scope need special care, as their continuation consists of two parts-in and out of the scope-and their modular composition introduces additional complexity. These effects are called scoped and have gained attention by their growing applicability and adoption in popular libraries. While calculi have been designed with algebraic effects & handlers built in to facilitate their use, a calculus that supports scoped effects & handlers in a similar manner does not yet exist. This work fills this gap: we present $\lambda_{\mathit{sc}}$, a calculus with native support for both algebraic and scoped effects & handlers. It addresses the need for polymorphic handlers and explicit clauses for forwarding unknown scoped operations to other handlers. Our calculus is based on Eff, an existing calculus for algebraic effects, extended with Koka-style row polymorphism, and consists of a formal grammar, operational semantics, a (type-safe) type-and-effect system and type inference. We demonstrate $\lambda_{\mathit{sc}}$ on a range of examples

A calculus of expandable stores: Continuation-and-environment-passing style translations

LICS 2020 will be held onlineInternational audienceThe call-by-need evaluation strategy for the λ-calculus is an evaluation strategy that lazily evaluates arguments only if needed, and if so, shares computations across all places where it is needed. To implement this evaluation strategy, abstract machines require some form of global environment. While abstract machines usually lead to a better understanding of the flow of control during the execution, facilitating in particular the definition of continuation-passing style translations , the case of machines with global environments turns out to be much more subtle. The main purpose of this paper is to understand how to type a continuation-and-environment-passing style translation , that is to say how to soundly translate in continuation-passing style a calculus with global environment. To this end, we introduce Fϒ , a generic calculus to define the target of such translations. In particular, Fϒ features a data type for typed stores and a mechanism of explicit coercions witnessing store extensions along environment-passing style translations. On the logical side, this broadly amounts to a Kripke forcing-like translation mixed with a negative translation (for the continuation-passing part). Since Fϒ allows for the definition of such translations for different source calculi (call-by-need, call-by-name, call-by-value) with different type systems (simple types, system F), we claim that it precisely captures the computational content of continuation-and-environment-passing style translations

Continuation-and-environment-passing style translations: a focus on call-by-need

The call-by-need evaluation strategy for the $λ$-calculus is an evaluation strategy that lazily evaluates arguments only if needed, and if so, shares computations across all places where it is needed. To implement this evaluation strategy, abstract machines require some form of global environment. While abstract machines usually lead to a better understanding of the flow of control during the execution, easing in particular the definition of continuation-passing style translations, the case of machines with global environments turns out to be much more subtle. The main purpose of this paper is to understand how to type a continuation-and-environment-passing style translations, that it to say how to soundly translate a classical calculus with environment into a calculus that does not have these features. To this end, we focus on a sequent calculus presentation of a call-by-need $λ$-calculus with classical control for which Ariola et. al already defined an untyped translation [5] and which we equipped with a system of simple types in a previous paper [32]. We present here a type system for the target language of their translation, which highlights a variant of Kripke forcing related to the environment-passing part of the translation. Finally, we show that our construction naturally handles the cases of call-by-name and call-by-value calculi with environment, encompassing in particular the Milner Abstract Machine, a machine with global environments for the call-by-name $λ$-calculus

On continuation-passing transformations and expected cost analysis

International audienceWe define a continuation-passing style (CPS) translation for a typed-calculus with probabilistic choice, unbounded recursion, and a tick operator-for modeling cost. The target language is a (non-probabilistic)-calculus, enriched with a type of extended positive reals and a fixpoint operator. We then show that applying the CPS transform of an expression to the continuation .0 yields the expected cost of. We also introduce a formal system for higher-order logic, called EHOL, prove it sound, and show it can derive tight upper bounds on the expected cost of classic examples, including Coupon Collector and Random Walk. Moreover, we relate our translation to Kaminski et al. 's ert-calculus, showing that the latter can be recovered by applying our CPS translation to (a generalization of) the classic embedding of imperative programs into-calculus. Finally, we prove that the CPS transform of an expression can also be used to compute pre-expectations and to reason about almost sure termination

Logical relations for coherence of effect subtyping

A coercion semantics of a programming language with subtyping is typically defined on typing derivations rather than on typing judgments. To avoid semantic ambiguity, such a semantics is expected to be coherent, i.e., independent of the typing derivation for a given typing judgment. In this article we present heterogeneous, biorthogonal, step-indexed logical relations for establishing the coherence of coercion semantics of programming languages with subtyping. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proof method, we develop a proof of coherence of a type-directed, selective CPS translation from a typed call-by-value lambda calculus with delimited continuations and control-effect subtyping. The article is accompanied by a Coq formalization that relies on a novel shallow embedding of a logic for reasoning about step-indexing