Session-ocaml: a session-based library with polarities and lenses

We propose session-ocaml, a novel library for session-typed concurrent/distributed programming in OCaml. Our technique solely relies on parametric polymorphism, which can encode core session type structures with strong static guarantees. Our key ideas are: ( ) polarised session types, which give an alternative formulation of duality enabling OCaml to automatically infer an appropriate session type in a session with a reasonable notational overhead; and ( ) a parameterised monad with a data structure called ‘slots’ manipulated with lenses, which can statically enforce session linearity and delegations. We show applications of session-ocaml including a travel agency usecase and an SMTP protocol

Typing with Leftovers - A mechanization of Intuitionistic Multiplicative-Additive Linear Logic

We start from an untyped, well-scoped lambda-calculus and introduce a bidirectional typing relation corresponding to a Multiplicative-Additive Intuitionistic Linear Logic. We depart from typical presentations to adopt one that is well-suited to the intensional setting of Martin-Löf Type Theory. This relation is based on the idea that a linear term consumes some of the resources available in its context whilst leaving behind leftovers which can then be fed to another program. Concretely, this means that typing derivations have both an input and an output context. This leads to a notion of weakening (the extra resources added to the input context come out unchanged in the output one), a rather direct proof of stability under substitution, an analogue of the frame rule of separation logic showing that the state of unused resources can be safely ignored, and a proof that typechecking is decidable. Finally, we demonstrate that this alternative formalization is sound and complete with respect to a more traditional representation of Intuitionistic Linear Logic. The work has been fully formalised in Agda, commented source files are provided as additional material available at https://github.com/gallais/typing-with-leftovers

Modular Inference of Linear Types for Multiplicity-Annotated Arrows

Bernardy et al. [2018] proposed a linear type system $\lambda^q_\to$ as a core type system of Linear Haskell. In the system, linearity is represented by annotated arrow types $A \to_m B$, where $m$ denotes the multiplicity of the argument. Thanks to this representation, existing non-linear code typechecks as it is, and newly written linear code can be used with existing non-linear code in many cases. However, little is known about the type inference of $\lambda^q_\to$. Although the Linear Haskell implementation is equipped with type inference, its algorithm has not been formalized, and the implementation often fails to infer principal types, especially for higher-order functions. In this paper, based on OutsideIn(X) [Vytiniotis et al., 2011], we propose an inference system for a rank 1 qualified-typed variant of $\lambda^q_\to$, which infers principal types. A technical challenge in this new setting is to deal with ambiguous types inferred by naive qualified typing. We address this ambiguity issue through quantifier elimination and demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach with examples.Comment: The full version of our paper to appear in ESOP 202

Gradual session types

Session types are a rich type discipline, based on linear types, that lifts the sort of safety claims that come with type systems to communications. However, web-based applications and microservices are often written in a mix of languages, with type disciplines in a spectrum between static and dynamic typing. Gradual session types address this mixed setting by providing a framework which grants seamless transition between statically typed handling of sessions and any required degree of dynamic typing. We propose Gradual GV as a gradually typed extension of the functional session type system GV. Following a standard framework of gradual typing, Gradual GV consists of an external language, which relaxes the type system of GV using dynamic types, and an internal language with casts, for which operational semantics is given, and a cast-insertion translation from the former to the latter. We demonstrate type and communication safety as well as blame safety, thus extending previous results to functional languages with session-based communication. The interplay of linearity and dynamic types requires a novel approach to specifying the dynamics of the language.Comment: Preprint of an article to appear in Journal of Functional Programmin

Quantitative program reasoning with graded modal types

In programming, data is often considered to be infinitely copiable, arbitrarily discardable, and universally unconstrained. However this view is naive: some data encapsulates resources that are subject to protocols (e.g., file and device handles, channels); some data should not be arbitrarily copied or communicated (e.g., private data). Linear types provide a partial remedy by delineating data in two camps: "resources" to be used but never copied or discarded, and unconstrained values. However, this binary distinction is too coarse-grained. Instead, we propose the general notion of graded modal types, which in combination with linear and indexed types, provides an expressive type theory for enforcing fine-grained resource-like properties of data. We present a type system drawing together these aspects (linear, graded, and indexed) embodied in a fully-fledged functional language implementation, called Granule. We detail the type system, including its metatheoretic properties, and explore examples in the concrete language. This work advances the wider goal of expanding the reach of type systems to capture and verify a broader set of program properties

Linear/non-Linear Types For Embedded Domain-Specific Languages

Domain-specific languages are often embedded inside of general-purpose host languages so that the embedded language can take advantage of host-language data structures, libraries, and tools. However, when the domain-specific language uses linear types, existing techniques for embedded languages fall short. Linear type systems, which have applications in a wide variety of programming domains including mutable state, I/O, concurrency, and quantum computing, can manipulate embedded non-linear data via the linear type !σ. However, prior work has not been able to produce linear embedded languages that have full and easy access to host-language data, libraries, and tools. This dissertation proposes a new perspective on linear, embedded, domain-specific languages derived from the linear/non-linear (LNL) interpretation of linear logic. The LNL model consists of two distinct fragments---one with linear types and another with non-linear types---and provides a simple categorical interface between the two. This dissertation identifies the linear fragment with the linear embedded language and the non-linear fragment with the general-purpose host language. The effectiveness of this framework is illustrated via a number of examples, implemented in a variety of host languages. In Haskell, linear domain-specific languages using mutable state and concurrency can take advantage of the monad that arises from the LNL model. In Coq, the QWIRE quantum circuit language uses linearity to enforce the no-cloning axiom of quantum mechanics. In homotopy type theory, quantum transformations can be encoded as higher inductive types to simplify the presentation of a quantum equational theory. These examples serve as case studies that prove linear/non-linear type theory is a natural and expressive interface in which to embed linear domain-specific languages

A framework for semiring-annotated type systems

The use of proof assistants as a tool for programming language theorists is becoming ever more practical and widespread. There is a range of satisfactory implementations of simply typed calculi in proof assistants based on dependent type theory. In this thesis, I extend an account of Simply Typed λ-calculus so as to be able to represent and reason about calculi whose variables have restricted usage patterns. Examples of such calculi include a logic with an S4 □-modality, in which certain variables cannot be used “inside” a box (□); and Linear Logic, in which linear variables have to be used exactly once. While there are existing implementations of some of these calculi in proof assistants, many of these implementations share little with the best presentations of simply typed calculi without variable usage restrictions, and thus end up being poorly understood or suboptimal in facilitating mechanised reasoning. Concretely, the main result of this thesis is a framework for representing and reasoning about a wide range of calculi with restricted variable usage. All of these calculi support novel simultaneous renaming and substitution operations. Furthermore, I provide several other examples of generic and specific programs facilitated by the framework. All of this work is implemented in the proof assistant Agda.The use of proof assistants as a tool for programming language theorists is becoming ever more practical and widespread. There is a range of satisfactory implementations of simply typed calculi in proof assistants based on dependent type theory. In this thesis, I extend an account of Simply Typed λ-calculus so as to be able to represent and reason about calculi whose variables have restricted usage patterns. Examples of such calculi include a logic with an S4 □-modality, in which certain variables cannot be used “inside” a box (□); and Linear Logic, in which linear variables have to be used exactly once. While there are existing implementations of some of these calculi in proof assistants, many of these implementations share little with the best presentations of simply typed calculi without variable usage restrictions, and thus end up being poorly understood or suboptimal in facilitating mechanised reasoning. Concretely, the main result of this thesis is a framework for representing and reasoning about a wide range of calculi with restricted variable usage. All of these calculi support novel simultaneous renaming and substitution operations. Furthermore, I provide several other examples of generic and specific programs facilitated by the framework. All of this work is implemented in the proof assistant Agda