Lambda Calculus with Types

by Henk Barendregt, Wil Dekkers, Richard Statman

Overview

This handbook with exercises reveals in formalisms, hitherto mainly used for hardware and software design and verification, unexpected mathematical beauty. The lambda calculus forms a prototype universal programming language, which in its untyped version is related to Lisp, and was treated in the first author's classic The Lambda Calculus (1984). The formalism has since been extended with types and used in functional programming (Haskell, Clean) and proof assistants (Coq, Isabelle, HOL), used in designing and verifying IT products and mathematical proofs. In this book, the authors focus on three classes of typing for lambda terms: simple types, recursive types and intersection types. It is in these three formalisms of terms and types that the unexpected mathematical beauty is revealed. The treatment is authoritative and comprehensive, complemented by an exhaustive bibliography, and numerous exercises are provided to deepen the readers' understanding and increase their confidence using types.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107272248
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/20/2013
Series:	Perspectives in Logic
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	50 MB
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About the Author

Henk Barendregt holds the chair on the Foundations of Mathematics and Computer Science at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Wil Dekkers is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Information and Computing Sciences at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Richard Statman is a Professor of Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.

Table of Contents

List of contributors; Preface; Introduction; Part I. Simple Types: 1. The simply typed lambda calculus; 2. Properties; 3. Tools; 4. Definability, unification and matching; 5. Extensions; 6. Applications; Part II. Recursive Types: 7. The systems; 8. Properties of recursive types; 9. Properties of terms with types; 10. Models; 11. Applications; Part III. Intersection Types: 12. An exemplary system; 13. Type assignment systems; 14. Basic properties; 15. Type and lambda structures; 16. Filter models; 17. Advanced properties and applications; Bibliography; Symbol index; Names index; Definitions index.

Editorial Reviews

"The book has a place in undergraduate libraries because of its uniquely comprehensive, if theoretical, treatment of a timely, widely important subject. Recommended."
D. V. Feldman, Choice

"The authors have produced a well-written, organised and comprehensive account of three important type systems. These systems' properties have been rich sources of interest to logicians for many years; their problems are not all solved, and in future work this book will almost certainly become a standard reference about them. It will also allow the more mathematically inclined computer scientist to obtain a deeper understanding of the principles behind some of the higher order languages in current use."
Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society

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