Date of Award
2013
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Graduate Group
Computer and Information Science
First Advisor
Steve Zdancewic
Abstract
Session types and typestate both promise a type system that can reason about protocol
adherence. The complexity budgets of most programming languages, however, do not
allow for new forms of types aimed at specific problem domains--even domains as broad
as these.
Classical F◦ --read "F-pop"--is a typed λ-calculus based on classical (i.e., full) linear
logic, wherein session types arise naturally from the interaction between the usual sums,
products, and implications of linear logic and a simple process model, with the dualizing
negation of classical logic naturally accounting for how a protocol is seen by each of a
channel's endpoints. Classical F◦ expressions evaluate to processes, reminiscent of those
in the π-calculus, that communicate over channels, but source expressions, rather than
including processes and channels, employ only two novel control operators that account
for process creation and communication.
F◦ is introduced by way of its intuitionistic fragment, which even on its own can account
for typestate: the combination of linearity and polymorphism leads to natural encodings
of many programmer-specified protocols. In fact, any protocol expressible as a regular
language can be encoded in an intuitionistic F◦ type. F◦ distinguishes between linear
and unrestricted types by using kinds together with a notion of subkinding, avoiding
the pitfalls of approaches based on type qualifiers or modalities; kinds are related by a
subkinding order that allows unrestricted types to be treated as though they were linear.
Soundness for intuitionistic and classical F◦ is proved both in the standard operational
sense of preservation and progress and for an augmented semantics that shows more
directly that the expected properties of linearity are preserved. This establishes the absence
of deadlocks in closed, well-typed F◦ programs; it also guarantees that such programs will
not "leak" processes as long as their result types are unrestricted.
Recommended Citation
Mazurak, Karl, "Linear Types, Protocols, and Processes in Classical F°" (2013). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 777.
https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/777