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Documents authored by Greenman, Ben

Artifact
Software
DOI: 10.4230/artifacts.23608
sidprasad/copeanddrag

Authors: Siddhartha Prasad, Ben Greenman, Tim Nelson, and Shriram Krishnamurthi

Abstract
Cite as

Siddhartha Prasad, Ben Greenman, Tim Nelson, Shriram Krishnamurthi. sidprasad/copeanddrag (Software, Source Code). Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@misc{dagstuhl-artifact-23608,
   title = {{sidprasad/copeanddrag}}, 
   author = {Prasad, Siddhartha and Greenman, Ben and Nelson, Tim and Krishnamurthi, Shriram},
   note = {Software, swhId: \href{https://archive.softwareheritage.org/swh:1:dir:b92dbb01ca5fcbe40ac64c8026fb3076fbf85d2a;origin=https://github.com/sidprasad/copeanddrag;visit=swh:1:snp:990270b6e3e85f7a6917e242812969d881a8b6cc;anchor=swh:1:rev:51bd5b858fffd4e8c78791d272293d140c1b2fdb}{\texttt{swh:1:dir:b92dbb01ca5fcbe40ac64c8026fb3076fbf85d2a}} (visited on 2025-06-25)},
   url = {https://github.com/sidprasad/copeanddrag/tree/ecoop-25},
   doi = {10.4230/artifacts.23608},
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.26
Lightweight Diagramming for Lightweight Formal Methods: A Grounded Language Design

Authors: Siddhartha Prasad, Ben Greenman, Tim Nelson, and Shriram Krishnamurthi

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 333, 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)

Abstract
Tools such as Alloy enable users to incrementally define, explore, verify, and diagnose specifications for complex systems. A critical component of these tools is a visualizer that lets users graphically explore generated models. As we show, however, a default visualizer that knows nothing about the domain can be unhelpful and can even actively violate presentational and cognitive principles. At the other extreme, full-blown custom visualization requires significant effort as well as knowledge that a tool user might not possess. Custom visualizations can also exhibit bad (even silent) failures. This paper charts a middle ground between the extremes of default and fully-customizable visualization. We capture essential domain information for lightweight diagramming, embodying this in a language. To identify key elements of lightweight diagrams, we ground the language design in both the cognitive science research on diagrams and in a corpus of 58 custom visualizations. We distill from these sources a small set of orthogonal primitives, and use the primitives to guide a diagramming language called Cope-and-Drag (CnD). We evaluate it on sample tasks, three user studies, and performance, and find that short CnD specifications consistently improve model comprehension over the Alloy default. CnD thus defines a new point in the design space of diagramming: a language that is lightweight, effective, and driven by sound principles.
Cite as

Siddhartha Prasad, Ben Greenman, Tim Nelson, and Shriram Krishnamurthi. Lightweight Diagramming for Lightweight Formal Methods: A Grounded Language Design. In 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 333, pp. 26:1-26:29, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{prasad_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.26,
  author =	{Prasad, Siddhartha and Greenman, Ben and Nelson, Tim and Krishnamurthi, Shriram},
  title =	{{Lightweight Diagramming for Lightweight Formal Methods: A Grounded Language Design}},
  booktitle =	{39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:29},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-373-7},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{333},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Silva, Alexandra},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-233187},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2025.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: formal methods, diagramming, visualization, language design}
}
Document
Artifact
DOI: 10.4230/DARTS.11.2.12
Lightweight Diagramming for Lightweight Formal Methods: A Grounded Language Design (Artifact)

Authors: Siddhartha Prasad, Ben Greenman, Tim Nelson, and Shriram Krishnamurthi

Published in: DARTS, Volume 11, Issue 2, Special Issue of the 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025)

Abstract
This artifact supports the paper “Lightweight Diagramming for Lightweight Formal Methods: A Grounded Language Design.” It provides an implementation of Cope and Drag (CnD), a lightweight diagramming language grounded in cognitive principles and a corpus analysis of existing visualizations. CnD enables users to define diagrams using a small set of orthogonal primitives that capture essential domain structure while avoiding the complexity of writing full visualization programs. The artifact allows exploration of CnD’s implementation and reproduction of claims made in the accompanying paper.
Cite as

Siddhartha Prasad, Ben Greenman, Tim Nelson, and Shriram Krishnamurthi. Lightweight Diagramming for Lightweight Formal Methods: A Grounded Language Design (Artifact). In Special Issue of the 39th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2025). Dagstuhl Artifacts Series (DARTS), Volume 11, Issue 2, pp. 12:1-12:11, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@Article{prasad_et_al:DARTS.11.2.12,
  author =	{Prasad, Siddhartha and Greenman, Ben and Nelson, Tim and Krishnamurthi, Shriram},
  title =	{{Lightweight Diagramming for Lightweight Formal Methods: A Grounded Language Design (Artifact)}},
  pages =	{12:1--12:11},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Artifacts Series},
  ISSN =	{2509-8195},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{11},
  number =	{2},
  editor =	{Prasad, Siddhartha and Greenman, Ben and Nelson, Tim and Krishnamurthi, Shriram},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DARTS.11.2.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-233552},
  doi =		{10.4230/DARTS.11.2.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: formal methods, diagramming, visualization, language design}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.44
Type Tailoring

Authors: Ashton Wiersdorf, Stephen Chang, Matthias Felleisen, and Ben Greenman

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 313, 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024)

Abstract
Type systems evolve too slowly to keep up with the quick evolution of libraries - especially libraries that introduce abstractions. Type tailoring offers a lightweight solution by equipping the core language with an API for modifying the elaboration of surface code into the internal language of the typechecker. Through user-programmable elaboration, tailoring rules appear to improve the precision and expressiveness of the underlying type system. Furthermore, type tailoring cooperates with the host type system by expanding to code that the host then typechecks. In the context of a hygienic metaprogramming system, tailoring rules can even harmoniously compose with one another. Type tailoring has emerged as a theme across several languages and metaprogramming systems, but never with direct support and rarely in the same shape twice. For example, both OCaml and Typed Racket enable forms of tailoring, but in quite different ways. This paper identifies key dimensions of type tailoring systems and tradeoffs along each dimension. It demonstrates the usefulness of tailoring with examples that cover sized vectors, database queries, and optional types. Finally, it outlines a vision for future research at the intersection of types and metaprogramming.
Cite as

Ashton Wiersdorf, Stephen Chang, Matthias Felleisen, and Ben Greenman. Type Tailoring. In 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 313, pp. 44:1-44:27, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{wiersdorf_et_al:LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.44,
  author =	{Wiersdorf, Ashton and Chang, Stephen and Felleisen, Matthias and Greenman, Ben},
  title =	{{Type Tailoring}},
  booktitle =	{38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024)},
  pages =	{44:1--44:27},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-341-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{313},
  editor =	{Aldrich, Jonathan and Salvaneschi, Guido},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.44},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-208933},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ECOOP.2024.44},
  annote =	{Keywords: Types, Metaprogramming, Macros, Partial Evaluation}
}
Document
Artifact
DOI: 10.4230/DARTS.10.2.24
Type Tailoring (Artifact)

Authors: Ashton Wiersdorf, Stephen Chang, Matthias Felleisen, and Ben Greenman

Published in: DARTS, Volume 10, Issue 2, Special Issue of the 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024)

Abstract
Type systems evolve too slowly to keep up with the quick evolution of libraries - especially libraries that introduce abstractions. Type tailoring offers a lightweight solution by equipping the core language with an API for modifying the elaboration of surface code into the internal language of the typechecker. Through user-programmable elaboration, tailoring rules appear to improve the precision and expressiveness of the underlying type system. Furthermore, type tailoring cooperates with the host type system by expanding to code that the host then typechecks. In the context of a hygienic metaprogramming system, tailoring rules can even harmoniously compose with one another. Type tailoring has emerged as a theme across several languages and metaprogramming systems, but never with direct support and rarely in the same shape twice. For example, both OCaml and Typed Racket enable forms of tailoring, but in quite different ways. This paper identifies key dimensions of type tailoring systems and tradeoffs along each dimension. It demonstrates the usefulness of tailoring with examples that cover sized vectors, database queries, and optional types. Finally, it outlines a vision for future research at the intersection of types and metaprogramming.
Cite as

Ashton Wiersdorf, Stephen Chang, Matthias Felleisen, and Ben Greenman. Type Tailoring (Artifact). In Special Issue of the 38th European Conference on Object-Oriented Programming (ECOOP 2024). Dagstuhl Artifacts Series (DARTS), Volume 10, Issue 2, pp. 24:1-24:2, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@Article{wiersdorf_et_al:DARTS.10.2.24,
  author =	{Wiersdorf, Ashton and Chang, Stephen and Felleisen, Matthias and Greenman, Ben},
  title =	{{Type Tailoring (Artifact)}},
  pages =	{24:1--24:2},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Artifacts Series},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-342-3},
  ISSN =	{2509-8195},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{10},
  number =	{2},
  editor =	{Wiersdorf, Ashton and Chang, Stephen and Felleisen, Matthias and Greenman, Ben},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DARTS.10.2.24},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-209220},
  doi =		{10.4230/DARTS.10.2.24},
  annote =	{Keywords: Types, Metaprogramming, Macros, Partial Evaluation}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SNAPL.2017.17
Migratory Typing: Ten Years Later

Authors: Sam Tobin-Hochstadt, Matthias Felleisen, Robert Findler, Matthew Flatt, Ben Greenman, Andrew M. Kent, Vincent St-Amour, T. Stephen Strickland, and Asumu Takikawa

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 71, 2nd Summit on Advances in Programming Languages (SNAPL 2017)

Abstract
In this day and age, many developers work on large, untyped code repositories. Even if they are the creators of the code, they notice that they have to figure out the equivalent of method signatures every time they work on old code. This step is time consuming and error prone. Ten years ago, the two lead authors outlined a linguistic solution to this problem. Specifically they proposed the creation of typed twins for untyped programming languages so that developers could migrate scripts from the untyped world to a typed one in an incremental manner. Their programmatic paper also spelled out three guiding design principles concerning the acceptance of grown idioms, the soundness of mixed-typed programs, and the units of migration. This paper revisits this idea of a migratory type system as implemented for Racket. It explains how the design principles have been used to produce the Typed Racket twin and presents an assessment of the project's status, highlighting successes and failures.
Cite as

Sam Tobin-Hochstadt, Matthias Felleisen, Robert Findler, Matthew Flatt, Ben Greenman, Andrew M. Kent, Vincent St-Amour, T. Stephen Strickland, and Asumu Takikawa. Migratory Typing: Ten Years Later. In 2nd Summit on Advances in Programming Languages (SNAPL 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 71, pp. 17:1-17:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)

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@InProceedings{tobinhochstadt_et_al:LIPIcs.SNAPL.2017.17,
  author =	{Tobin-Hochstadt, Sam and Felleisen, Matthias and Findler, Robert and Flatt, Matthew and Greenman, Ben and Kent, Andrew M. and St-Amour, Vincent and Strickland, T. Stephen and Takikawa, Asumu},
  title =	{{Migratory Typing: Ten Years Later}},
  booktitle =	{2nd Summit on Advances in Programming Languages (SNAPL 2017)},
  pages =	{17:1--17:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-032-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{71},
  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.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SNAPL.2017.17},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-71202},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SNAPL.2017.17},
  annote =	{Keywords: design principles, type systems, gradual typing}
}
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