Publications
Thesis - On Linear Types and Imperative Update
My thesis is available in
dvi,
postscript,
gzip'ed dvi, and
gzip'ed postscript
formats. Here is the abstract:
The rift between imperative and functional programming
is one of the oldest in computing.
Imperative languages provide for greater speed and efficiency,
especially through the use of destructive update of variables.
Functional computation is often regarded as being much cleaner
mathematically, and is supportive of simple, rigorous reasoning
principles.
However, the absence of destructive update (along with problems
with garbage collection, etc.) in functional languages
results in a loss of speed and
efficiency. Additionally, functional languages are
conceptually indirect and cumbersome
when used to express naturally imperative computation.
The prospect of unifying these
diverse forms of programming, to combine the best
features from each,
is a continuing concern in programming languages.
This thesis investigates
the extent to,
and the sense in which, programming languages based on linear logic are simultan
eously
imperative and purely functional, and to what extent they embody the
strengths of each programming paradigm.