DROPS

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SNAPL.2019.2

Blame Tracking and Type Error Debugging

Authors: Sheng Chen and John Peter Campora III

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 136, 3rd Summit on Advances in Programming Languages (SNAPL 2019)

Abstract

In this work, we present an unexpected connection between gradual typing and type error debugging. Namely, we illustrate that gradual typing provides a natural way to defer type errors in statically ill-typed programs, providing more feedback than traditional approaches to deferring type errors. When evaluating expressions that lead to runtime type errors, the usefulness of the feedback depends on blame tracking, the defacto approach to locating the cause of such runtime type errors. Unfortunately, blame tracking suffers from the bias problem for type error localization in languages with type inference. We illustrate and formalize the bias problem for blame tracking, present ideas for adapting existing type error debugging techniques to combat this bias, and outline further challenges.

Cite as

Sheng Chen and John Peter Campora III. Blame Tracking and Type Error Debugging. In 3rd Summit on Advances in Programming Languages (SNAPL 2019). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 136, pp. 2:1-2:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2019)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.SNAPL.2019.2,
  author =	{Chen, Sheng and Campora III, John Peter},
  title =	{{Blame Tracking and Type Error Debugging}},
  booktitle =	{3rd Summit on Advances in Programming Languages (SNAPL 2019)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-113-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2019},
  volume =	{136},
  editor =	{Lerner, Benjamin S. and Bod{\'\i}k, Rastislav and Krishnamurthi, Shriram},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops-dev.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SNAPL.2019.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-105451},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SNAPL.2019.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: Blame tracking, type error debugging, gradual typing, type inference}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2016.6

A Calculus for Variational Programming

Authors: Sheng Chen, Martin Erwig, and Eric Walkingshaw

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 56, 30th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2016)

Abstract

Variation is ubiquitous in software. Many applications can benefit from making this variation explicit, then manipulating and computing with it directly---a technique we call "variational programming". This idea has been independently discovered in several application domains, such as efficiently analyzing and verifying software product lines, combining bounded and symbolic model-checking, and computing with alternative privacy profiles. Although these domains share similar core problems, and there are also many similarities in the solutions, there is no dedicated programming language support for variational programming. This makes the various implementations tedious, prone to errors, hard to maintain and reuse, and difficult to compare. In this paper we present a calculus that forms the basis of a programming language with explicit support for representing, manipulating, and computing with variation in programs and data. We illustrate how such a language can simplify the implementation of variational programming tasks. We present the syntax and semantics of the core calculus, a sound type system, and a type inference algorithm that produces principal types.

Cite as

Sheng Chen, Martin Erwig, and Eric Walkingshaw. A Calculus for Variational Programming. In 30th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2016). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 56, pp. 6:1-6:28, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2016)

Copy BibTex To Clipboard

@InProceedings{chen_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2016.6,
  author =	{Chen, Sheng and Erwig, Martin and Walkingshaw, Eric},
  title =	{{A Calculus for Variational Programming}},
  booktitle =	{30th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2016)},
  pages =	{6:1--6:28},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-014-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2016},
  volume =	{56},
  editor =	{Krishnamurthi, Shriram and Lerner, Benjamin S.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2016.6},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-61005},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2016.6},
  annote =	{Keywords: Variational programming, variational types, variability-aware analyses}
}

Search Results

Documents authored by Chen, Sheng

Blame Tracking and Type Error Debugging

Abstract

Cite as

A Calculus for Variational Programming

Abstract

Cite as

Thanks for your feedback!

Could not send message