Towards Strong Normalization for Dependent Object Types (DOT)

The Dependent Object Types (DOT) family of calculi has been proposed as a new theoretic foundation for Scala and similar languages, unifying functional programming, object oriented programming and ML-style module systems. Following the recent type soundness proof for DOT, the present paper aims to establish stronger meta-theoretic properties. The main result is a fully mechanized proof of strong normalization for D_<:, a variant of DOT that excludes recursive functions and recursive types. We further discuss techniques and challenges for adding recursive types while maintaining strong normalization, and demonstrate that certain variants of recursive self types can be integrated successfully

Dynamic opacity for abstract types

Existential types are the standard formalisation of abstract types. While this formulation is sufficient in entirely statically typed languages, it proves to be too weak for languages enriched with forms of dynamic typing: in the presence of operations performing type analysis, the abstraction barrier erected by the static typing rules for existential types is no longer impassable, because parametricity is violated. We present a light-weight calculus for polymorphic languages with abstract types that addresses this shortcoming. It features a variation of existential types that retains most of the simplicity of standard existentials. It relies on modified scoping rules and explicit coercions between the quantified variable and its witness type

Introduction to the Literature On Programming Language Design

This is an introduction to the literature on programming language design and related topics. It is intended to cite the most important work, and to provide a place for students to start a literature search

The Essence of Dependent Object Types

Focusing on path-dependent types, the paper develops foundations for Scala from first principles. Starting from a simple calculus D-<: of dependent functions, it adds records, intersections and recursion to arrive at DOT, a calculus for dependent object types. The paper shows an encoding of System F with subtyping in D-<: and demonstrates the expressiveness of DOT by modeling a range of Scala constructs in it

Type soundness proofs with definitional interpreters

While type soundness proofs are taught in every graduate PL class, the gap between realistic languages and what is accessible to formal proofs is large. In the case of Scala, it has been shown that its formal model, the Dependent Object Types (DOT) calculus, cannot simultaneously support key metatheoretic properties such as environment narrowing and subtyping transitivity, which are usually required for a type soundness proof. Moreover, Scala and many other realistic languages lack a general substitution property. The first contribution of this paper is to demonstrate how type soundness proofs for advanced, polymorphic, type systems can be carried out with an operational semantics based on high-level, definitional interpreters, implemented in Coq. We present the first mechanized soundness proofs in this style for System F<: and several extensions, including mutable references. Our proofs use only straightforward induction, which is significant, as the combination of big-step semantics, mutable references, and polymorphism is commonly believed to require coinductive proof techniques. The second main contribution of this paper is to show how DOT-like calculi emerge from straightforward generalizations of the operational aspects of F<:, exposing a rich design space of calculi with path-dependent types in between System F and DOT, which we dub the System D Square. By working directly on the target language, definitional interpreters can focus the design space and expose the invariants that actually matter at runtime. Looking at such runtime invariants is an exciting new avenue for type system design.This research was supported by NSF through awards 1553471 and 1564207

Retrofitting OCaml modules: Fixing signature avoidance in the generative case

International audienceML modules are offer large-scale notions of composition and modularity. Provided as an additional layer on top of the core language, they have proven both vital to the working OCaml and SML programmers, and inspiring to other use-cases and languages. Unfortunately, their meta-theory remains difficult to comprehend, requiring heavy machinery to prove their soundness. Building on a previous translation from ML modules to Fω , we propose a new comprehensive description of a generative subset of OCaml modules, embarking on a journey right from the source OCaml module system, up to Fω , and back. We pause in the middle to uncover a system, called canonical that combines the best of both worlds. On the way, we obtain type soundness, but also and more importantly, a deeper insight into the signature avoidance problem, along with ways to improve both the OCaml language and its typechecking algorithm