Programming Language Analysis and Design

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This research is concerned with a framework for understanding syntactic, operational and semantic properties of contemporary programming languages. In addition to extending a descriptive theory of programming based on type theory and denotational semantics, the research contributes to the development of new programming languages. The programming language goals are increased ease and efficiency of programming. This involves both cleaner language design, so that programs are easier for programmers to read, write and maintain, and careful attention to features that make it possible for programming tools to manipulate programs meaningfully. The theoretical aspects of the research are aimed at establishing the semantic and algorithmic basis for the development and implementation of programming tools and environments. A common thread through the research is the use of type systems, both as a mathematical framework for analysis and a syntactic basis for automatic program analysis. Some specific problems are the static type analysis of object-oriented programming languages, aimed toward establishing properties of programs that may be used in compilation and program transformation, type inference algorithms for functional languages that include imperative and control features (exceptions and continuations), and the use of linear logic to obtain more precise static analysis of programs. A pragmatic language design effort is a type and module system that is useful for the design and development of object-oriented programs in existing languages. Some longer-term foundational problems are the model theory of linear logic, operational and denotational methods for reasoning about imperative programs with higher-order and polymorphic constructs, and treatments of concurrency in a higher-order or object-oriented language framework.