Bar recursion is not computable via iteration

We show that the bar recursion operators of Spector and Kohlenbach, considered as third-order functionals acting on total arguments, are not computable in Goedel's System T plus minimization, which we show to be equivalent to a programming language with a higher-order iteration construct. The main result is formulated so as to imply the non-definability of bar recursion in T + min within a variety of partial and total models, for instance the Kleene-Kreisel continuous functionals. The paper thus supplies proofs of some results stated in the book by Longley and Normann. The proof of the main theorem makes serious use of the theory of nested sequential procedures (also known as PCF Boehm trees), and proceeds by showing that bar recursion cannot be represented by any sequential procedure within which the tree of nested function applications is well-founded.Comment: 43 pages, 5 figure

Effects for Efficiency: Asymptotic Speedup with First-Class Control

We study the fundamental efficiency of delimited control. Specifically, we show that effect handlers enable an asymptotic improvement in runtime complexity for a certain class of functions. We consider the generic count problem using a pure PCF-like base language $\lambda_b$ and its extension with effect handlers $\lambda_h$. We show that $\lambda_h$ admits an asymptotically more efficient implementation of generic count than any $\lambda_b$ implementation. We also show that this efficiency gap remains when $\lambda_b$ is extended with mutable state. To our knowledge this result is the first of its kind for control operators

The recursion hierarchy for PCF is strict

We consider the sublanguages of Plotkin's PCF obtained by imposing some bound k on the levels of types for which fixed point operators are admitted. We show that these languages form a strict hierarchy, in the sense that a fixed point operator for a type of level k can never be defined (up to observational equivalence) using fixed point operators for lower types. This answers a question posed by Berger. Our proof makes substantial use of the theory of nested sequential procedures (also called PCF B\"ohm trees) as expounded in the recent book of Longley and Normann

Foundations for programming and implementing effect handlers

First-class control operators provide programmers with an expressive and efficient means for manipulating control through reification of the current control state as a first-class object, enabling programmers to implement their own computational effects and control idioms as shareable libraries. Effect handlers provide a particularly structured approach to programming with first-class control by naming control reifying operations and separating from their handling. This thesis is composed of three strands of work in which I develop operational foundations for programming and implementing effect handlers as well as exploring the expressive power of effect handlers. The first strand develops a fine-grain call-by-value core calculus of a statically typed programming language with a structural notion of effect types, as opposed to the nominal notion of effect types that dominates the literature. With the structural approach, effects need not be declared before use. The usual safety properties of statically typed programming are retained by making crucial use of row polymorphism to build and track effect signatures. The calculus features three forms of handlers: deep, shallow, and parameterised. They each offer a different approach to manipulate the control state of programs. Traditional deep handlers are defined by folds over computation trees, and are the original con-struct proposed by Plotkin and Pretnar. Shallow handlers are defined by case splits (rather than folds) over computation trees. Parameterised handlers are deep handlers extended with a state value that is threaded through the folds over computation trees. To demonstrate the usefulness of effects and handlers as a practical programming abstraction I implement the essence of a small UNIX-style operating system complete with multi-user environment, time-sharing, and file I/O. The second strand studies continuation passing style (CPS) and abstract machine semantics, which are foundational techniques that admit a unified basis for implementing deep, shallow, and parameterised effect handlers in the same environment. The CPS translation is obtained through a series of refinements of a basic first-order CPS translation for a fine-grain call-by-value language into an untyped language. Each refinement moves toward a more intensional representation of continuations eventually arriving at the notion of generalised continuation, which admit simultaneous support for deep, shallow, and parameterised handlers. The initial refinement adds support for deep handlers by representing stacks of continuations and handlers as a curried sequence of arguments. The image of the resulting translation is not properly tail-recursive, meaning some function application terms do not appear in tail position. To rectify this the CPS translation is refined once more to obtain an uncurried representation of stacks of continuations and handlers. Finally, the translation is made higher-order in order to contract administrative redexes at translation time. The generalised continuation representation is used to construct an abstract machine that provide simultaneous support for deep, shallow, and parameterised effect handlers. kinds of effect handlers. The third strand explores the expressiveness of effect handlers. First, I show that deep, shallow, and parameterised notions of handlers are interdefinable by way of typed macro-expressiveness, which provides a syntactic notion of expressiveness that affirms the existence of encodings between handlers, but it provides no information about the computational content of the encodings. Second, using the semantic notion of expressiveness I show that for a class of programs a programming language with first-class control (e.g. effect handlers) admits asymptotically faster implementations than possible in a language without first-class control