update calculus for expressing type-safe program updates
By: Martin Erwig and Deling Ren.
Contributors: Ren, Deling.; Oregon State University. Dept. of Computer Science.
Series: Technical report -- TR02-60-09.; Technical report (Oregon State University. Dept. of Computer Science) -- 02-60-09.
Publisher: Oregon State University, Dept. of Computer Science
Published: 2002
Place of publication: [Corvallis, OR
Language: eng
Number of pages: 22
Subjects: Lambda calculus -- Computer programs.
Description: Many software maintenance problems are caused by using text editors to change programs. A more systematic and reliable way of performing program updates is to express changes with an update language. In particular, updates should preserve the syntax- and type-correctness of the transformed object programs.  We describe an update calculus that can be used to update lambda-calculus programs. We develop a type system for the update language that infers the possible type changes that can be caused by an update program. We demonstrate that type-safe update programs that fulfill certain structural constraints preserve the type-correctness of lambda terms. The update calculus can serve as a basis for higher-level update languages, such as for Haskell or Java. We briefly indicate a possible design of these update languages.
Notes: Caption title.

"10/2002."

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 21-22).

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