Article

A step-indexed model of substructural state

Authors:

Greg MorrisettAuthors Info & Claims

ICFP '05: Proceedings of the tenth ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming

Pages 78 - 91

https://doi.org/10.1145/1086365.1086376

Published: 12 September 2005 Publication History

Abstract

The concept of a "unique" object arises in many emerging programming languages such as Clean, CQual, Cyclone, TAL, and Vault. In each of these systems, unique objects make it possible to perform operations that would otherwise be prohibited (e.g., deallocating an object) or to ensure that some obligation will be met (e.g., an opened file will be closed). However, different languages provide different interpretations of "uniqueness" and have different rules regarding how unique objects interact with the rest of the language.Our goal is to establish a common model that supports each of these languages, by allowing us to encode and study the interactions of the different forms of uniqueness. The model we provide is based on a substructural variant of the polymorphic λ-calculus, augmented with four kinds of mutable references: unrestricted, relevant, affine, and linear. The language has a natural operational semantics that supports deallocation of references, strong (type-varying) updates, and storage of unique objects in shared references. We establish the strong soundness of the type system by constructing a novel, semantic interpretation of the types.

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Tang WHillerström DLindley SMorris J(2024)Soundly Handling LinearityProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36328968:POPL(1600-1628)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
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Spies SKrishnaswami NDreyer D(2021)Transfinite step-indexing for terminationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34342945:POPL(1-29)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2021
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Index Terms

A step-indexed model of substructural state
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Formal language definitions
      1. Semantics
    2. General programming languages
      1. Language features
2. Theory of computation
  1. Semantics and reasoning
    1. Program semantics

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ICFP '05: Proceedings of the tenth ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming

September 2005

342 pages

ISBN:1595930647

DOI:10.1145/1086365

General Chair:
Olivier Danvy
BRICS, University of Aarhus, Denmark
,
Program Chair:
Benjamin C. Pierce
University of Pennsylvania

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 40, Issue 9
Proceedings of the tenth ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming
September 2005
330 pages
ISSN:0362-1340
EISSN:1558-1160
DOI:10.1145/1090189
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2005 ACM.

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Published: 12 September 2005

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ICFP05

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ICFP05: ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming

September 26 - 28, 2005

Tallinn, Estonia

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Overall Acceptance Rate 333 of 1,064 submissions, 31%

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ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming

October 12 - 18, 2025

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Cited By

Fitzgibbons MParaskevopoulou ZMushtak NThalakottur MSulaiman Manzur JAhmed A(2024)RichWasm: Bringing Safe, Fine-Grained, Shared-Memory Interoperability Down to WebAssemblyProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36564448:PLDI(1656-1679)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3656444
Tang WHillerström DLindley SMorris J(2024)Soundly Handling LinearityProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/36328968:POPL(1600-1628)Online publication date: 5-Jan-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3632896
Spies SKrishnaswami NDreyer D(2021)Transfinite step-indexing for terminationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34342945:POPL(1-29)Online publication date: 4-Jan-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3434294
Jung RJourdan JKrebbers RDreyer D(2017)RustBelt: securing the foundations of the Rust programming languageProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/31581542:POPL(1-34)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3158154
O'Connor LChen ZRizkallah CAmani SLim JMurray TNagashima YSewell TKlein G(2016)Refinement through restraint: bringing down the cost of verificationACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3022670.295194051:9(89-102)Online publication date: 4-Sep-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3022670.2951940
Morris J(2016)The best of both worlds: linear functional programming without compromiseACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3022670.295192551:9(448-461)Online publication date: 4-Sep-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3022670.2951925
O'Connor LChen ZRizkallah CAmani SLim JMurray TNagashima YSewell TKlein GGarrigue JKeller GSumii E(2016)Refinement through restraint: bringing down the cost of verificationProceedings of the 21st ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming10.1145/2951913.2951940(89-102)Online publication date: 4-Sep-2016
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Morris JGarrigue JKeller GSumii E(2016)The best of both worlds: linear functional programming without compromiseProceedings of the 21st ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming10.1145/2951913.2951925(448-461)Online publication date: 4-Sep-2016
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Gan ETov JMorrisett G(2015)Type Classes for Lightweight Substructural TypesElectronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science10.4204/EPTCS.176.4176(34-48)Online publication date: 16-Feb-2015
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Rossberg ADreyer D(2013)Mixin’ Up the ML Module SystemACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/2450136.245013735:1(1-84)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2013
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