This paper is an overview of existing applications of Linear Logic (LL) to issues of computation. After a substantial introduction to LL, it discusses the implications of LL to functional programming, logic programming, concurrent and object-oriented programming and some other applications of LL, like semantics of negation in LP, non-monotonic issues in AI planning, etc. Although the overview covers pretty much the state-of-the-art in this area, by necessity many of the works are only mentioned and referenced, but not discussed in any considerable detail. The paper does not presuppose any previous exposition to LL, and is addressed more to computer scientists (probably with a theoretical inclination) than to logicians. The paper contains over 140 references, of which some 80 are about applications of LL. 1 Linear Logic Linear Logic (LL) was introduced in 1987 by Girard [62]. From the very beginning it was recognized as relevant to issues of computation (especially concurrency and stat...

Many object-oriented languages used in practice descend from Algol. With this motivation, we study the theoretical issues underlying such languages via the theory of Algollike languages. It is shown that the basic framework of this theory extends cleanly and elegantly to the concepts of objects and classes. An important idea that comes to light is that classes are abstract data types, whose theory corresponds to that of existential types. Equational and Hoare-like reasoning methods, and relational parametricity provide powerful formal tools for reasoning about Algol-like object-oriented programs. 1

Most programming languages have certain phrases (like expressions) which only read information from the state and certain others (like commands) which write information to the state. These are called passive and active phrases respectively. Semantic models which make these distinctions have been hard to find. For instance, most semantic models have expression denotations that (temporarily) change the state. Common reasoning principles, such as the Hoare’s assignment axiom, are not valid in such models. We define here a semantic model which captures the notions of “change”, “absence of change” and “independent change ” etc. This is done by extending the author’s “linear logic model of state ” with dependence/independence relations so that sequential traces give way to pomset traces. 1

This paper presents a modular and extensible style of language specification based on metacomputations. This style uses two monads to factor the static and dynamic parts of the specification, thereby staging the specification and achieving strong binding-time separation. Because metacomputations are defined interms of monads, they can be constructed modularly and extensibly using monad transformers. A number of language constructs are specified: expressions, control flow, imperative features, and block structure. Metacomputation-style specification lends itself to semantics-directed compilation, which we demonstrate by creating a modular compiler for a block-structured, imperative while language.

Imperative Lambda Calculus is a type system designed to combine functional and imperative programming features in an orthogonal fashion without compromising the algebraic properties of functions. It has been noted that the original system is too restrictive and lacks the subject reduction property. We define a revised type system that solves these problems using ideas from Reynolds's Syntactic Control of Interference. We also extend it to handle Hindley-Milner style polymorphism and devise type reconstruction algorithms. A sophisticated constraint language is designed to formulate principal types for terms. 1 Introduction The recent research in programming languages has greatly clarified the interaction between imperative and functional programming. The conventional notion that functional programming and imperative state-manipulation are in conflict has been dispelled. Several programming languages have now been designed which combine functions and assignments without destroying algeb...