1 research outputs found
String Diagrams for -calculi and Functional Computation
This tutorial gives an advanced introduction to string diagrams and graph
languages for higher-order computation. The subject matter develops in a
principled way, starting from the two dimensional syntax of key categorical
concepts such as functors, adjunctions, and strictification, and leading up to
Cartesian Closed Categories, the core mathematical model of the lambda calculus
and of functional programming languages. This methodology inverts the usual
approach of proceeding from syntax to a categorical interpretation, by
rationally reconstructing a syntax from the categorical model. The result is a
graph syntax -- more precisely, a hierarchical hypergraph syntax -- which in
many ways is shown to be an improvement over the conventional linear term
syntax. The rest of the tutorial focuses on applications of interest to
programming languages: operational semantics, general frameworks for type
inference, and complex whole-program transformations such as closure conversion
and automatic differentiation