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Alias Types for Recursive Data Structures

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Types in Compilation (TIC 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2071))

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Abstract

Linear type systems permit programmers to deallocate or explicitly recycle memory, but are severely restricted by the fact that they admit no aliasing. This paper describes a pseudo-linear type system that allows a degree of aliasing and memory reuse as well as the ability to define complex recursive data structures. Our type system can encode conventional linear data structures such as linear lists and trees as well as more sophisticated data structures including cyclic and doubly-linked lists and trees. In the latter cases, our type system is expressive enough to represent pointer aliasing and yet safely permit destructive operations such as object deallocation.We demonstrate the flexibility of our type system by encoding two common space-conscious algorithms: destination-passing style and Deutsch-Schorr-Waite or “link-reversal” traversal algorithms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Carnegie Mellon University, USA

    David Walker

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  1. David Walker
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  2. Greg Morrisett
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213-3891, USA

    Robert Harper

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Walker, D., Morrisett, G. (2001). Alias Types for Recursive Data Structures. In: Harper, R. (eds) Types in Compilation. TIC 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2071. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45332-6_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45332-6_7

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-42196-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45332-1

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