2014/06/09 by Baltasar Trancón y Widemann, Markus Lepper
Computer Science · #cs.PL #cs.DM
paper · pdf · doi:10.4204/eptcs.153.10
published as EPTCS 153, 2014, pp. 143-167 · In Proceedings MSFP 2014, arXiv:1406.1534
arxiv created 2014/06/09 · arxiv updated 2014/06/10
The field of declarative stream programming (discrete time, clocked synchronous, modular, data-centric) is divided between the data-flow graph paradigm favored by domain experts, and the functional reactive paradigm favored by academics. In this paper, we describe the foundations of a framework for unifying functional and data-flow styles that differs from FRP proper in significant ways: It is based on set theory to match the expectations of domain experts, and the two paradigms are reduced symmetrically to a low-level middle ground, with strongly compositional semantics. The design of the framework is derived from mathematical first principles, in particular coalgebraic coinduction and a standard relational model of stateful computation. The abstract syntax and semantics introduced here constitute the full core of a novel stream programming language.