Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/81231

Title

A lambda calculus with forms

Author(s)

Lumpe, Markus

Abstract

The need to use position-dependent parameters often hampers the definition of flexible, extensible, and reusable abstractions for software composition. This observation has led us to explore the concept of forms, which are first-class extensible records and that, in combination with a small set of purely asymmetric operators, provide a core language to address this issue. One interesting application of forms is the definition of contractual specifications to ensure that a component can be safely combined with other components or deployed in a new context. In fact, contractual specifications explicitly and formally state what a component offers without entering into the details of how. In this paper, we develop a formal form-based framework for the definition of contractual specifications. More precisely, we study a substitution-free variant of the lambda-calculus, called λF, where names are replaced with forms and parameter passing is modeled using explicit contexts and show how the λF-calculus can be used to define syntactic contractual specifications.

Publication type

Conference paper

Source

Lecture notes in computer science: revised selected papers from the 4th International Workshop on Software Composition (SC 2005), Edinburgh, Scotland, 09 April 2005, Vol. 3628, pp. 83-98

Publication year

2005

FOR Code(s)

0803 Computer Software

Keyword(s)

Artificial intelligence;  Calculus;  Computer programming languages;  Computer software;  Differentiation;  Form-based framework;  Lambda calculus;  Mathematical models;  Numerical methods;  Parameter estimation;  Parameter passing;  Position-dependent parameters;  Software composition

Publisher

Springer

ISSN

0302-9743 (series ISSN)

ISBN

9783540287018, 3540287019

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/11550679_7

Copyright

Copyright © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.

Peer reviewed