Witnessing side effects

We present a new approach to the old problem of adding side effects to purely functional languages. Our idea is to extend the language with "witnesses," which is based on an arguably more pragmatic motivation than past approaches. We give a semantic condition for correctness and prove it is sufficient. We also give a static checking algorithm that makes use of a network flow property equivalent to the semantic condition. Categories and Subject Descriptors D.3.1 [Programming Languages]: Formal Definitions and Theory; D.3.3 [Programming Languages]: Language Constructs and Features General Terms Design, Languages, Theory Keywords Functional languages, side-effects

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: TOPLAS
• Authors: Tachio Terauchi, Alex Aiken
• Keywords: Functional Languages, Keywords Functional Languages, Semantic Condition, TOPLAS 2008