Given a complete and cocomplete symmetric monoidal closed category V and a symmetric monoidal V-category C with cotensors and a strong V-monad T on C, we investigate axioms under which an ObC-indexed family of operations of the form α_x : (Tx)^ν → (Tx)^ω provides semantics for algebraic operations on the computational λ-calculus. We recall a definition for which we have elsewhere given adequacy results, and we show that an enrichment of it is equivalent to a range of other possible natural definitions of algebraic operation. In particular, we define the notion of generic effect and show that to give a generic effect is equivalent to giving an algebraic operation. We further show how the usual monadic semantics of the computational λ-calculus extends uniformly to incorporate generic effects. We outline examples and non-examples and we show that our definition also enriches one for call-by-name languages with e#ects.

In a paper about pretty printing J. Hughes introduced two fundamental techniques for deriving programs from their specication, where a specication consists of a signature and properties that the operations of the signature are required to satisfy. Briey, the rst technique, the term implementation, represents the operations by terms and works by dening a mapping from operations to observations | this mapping can be seen as dening a simple interpreter. The second, the context-passing implementation, represents operations as functions from their calling context to observations. We apply both techniques to derive a backtracking monad transformer that adds backtracking to an arbitrary monad. In addition to the usual backtracking operations | failure and nondeterministic choice | the prolog cut and an operation for delimiting the eect of a cut are supported. Categories and Subject Descriptors D.1.1 [Programming Techniques]: Applicative (Functional) Programming; D.3.2 [Programming La...

A standard monad of continuations, when constructed with domains in the world of FM-sets [4], is shown to provide a model of dynamic allocation of fresh names that is both simple and useful. In particular, it is used to prove that the powerful facilities for manipulating fresh names and binding operations provided by the “Fresh ” series of metalanguages [15,17,18] respect α-equivalence of object-level languages up to meta-level contextual equivalence.

We seek a unified account of modularity for computational effects. We begin by reformulating Moggi’s monadic paradigm for modelling computational effects using the notion of enriched Lawvere theory, together with its relationship with strong monads; this emphasises the importance of the operations that produce the effects. Effects qua theories are then combined by appropriate bifunctors on the category of theories. We give a theory for the sum of computational effects, which in particular yields Moggi’s exceptions monad transformer and an interactive input/output monad transformer. We further give a theory of the commutative combination of effects, their tensor, which yields Moggi’s side-effects monad transformer. Finally we give a theory of operation transformers, for redefining operations when adding new effects; we derive explicit forms for the operation transformers associated to the above monad transformers.

Dynamic binding and delimited control are useful together in many settings, including Web applications, database cursors, and mobile code. We examine this pair of language features to show that the semantics of their interaction is ill-defined yet not expressive enough for these uses. We solve this open and subtle problem. We formalise a typed language DB+DC that combines a calculus DB of dynamic binding and a calculus DC of delimited control. We argue from theoretical and practical points of view that its semantics should be based on delimited dynamic binding: capturing a delimited continuation closes over part of the dynamic environment, rather than all or none of it; reinstating the captured continuation supplements the dynamic environment, rather than replacing or inheriting it. We introduce a type- and reduction-preserving translation from DB + DC to DC, which proves that delimited control macro-expresses dynamic binding. We use this translation to implement DB + DC in Scheme, OCaml, and Haskell. We extend DB + DC with mutable dynamic variables and a facility to obtain not only the latest binding of a dynamic variable but also older bindings. This facility provides for stack inspection and (more generally) folding over the execution context as an inductive data structure.

We overview a programme to provide a unified semantics for computational effects based upon the notion of a countable enriched Lawvere theory. We define the notion of countable enriched Lawvere theory, show how the various leading examples of computational effects, except for continuations, give rise to them, and we compare the definition with that of a strong monad. We outline how one may use the notion to model three natural ways in which to combine computational effects: by their sum, by their commutative combination, and by distributivity. We also outline a unified account of operational semantics. We present results we have already shown, some partial results, and our plans for further development of the programme.

This paper proposes a syntactic reformulation of the modular approach to Denotational Semantics in [Mog89a, Mog91a]. This reformulation is based on a duality between model constructions and translations of theories (often called relative interpretations), analogous to Gabriel-Ulmer duality. To demonstrate the simplicity and usability of the syntactic reformulation, we give a sample of theories and translations, which can be used to give semantics to concurrent languages (via translation into suitable metalanguages).

Abstract not found

Concurrent computation can be given an abstract mathematical treatment very similar to that provided for sequential computation by domain theory and denotational semantics of Scott and Strachey.

We begin to develop a unified account of modularity for computational effects. We use the notion of enriched Lawvere theory, together with its relationship with strong monads, to reformulate Moggi's paradigm for modelling computational effects; we emphasise the importance here of the operations that induce computational effects. Effects qua theories are then combined by appropriate bifunctors (on the category of theories). We give a theory of the commutative combination of effects, which in particular yields Moggi's side-effects monad transformer (an application is the combination of side-effects with nondeterminism). And we give a theory...