Advanced Functional Programming

thetheorybehindmanythingscommonlywrittenbyfunctionalprogrammers. Oneofthemainachievementsoftheprojecthasbeentomakepeopleaware ofthefactthatmanyalgorithmscanbedescribedinadata-independentway. ThePolyPsystemintroducedinthesenotesisoneofthetranslationstothe Haskell-worldofthistheoreticalunderpinning. Thethirdlecture,onGenericProgramTransformation,canalsobeseenas anapplicationofthetheoryintroducedinlecturetwo. Manye?ciency-improving programtransformationscanbeperformedinamechanicalway,andthesewould nothavebeenpossiblewithoutinsightintothecorrectnessofsuchtransfor- tionsgainedinthelectureonGenericProgramming. Thefourthlecture,onDesigningandImplementingCombinatorLanguages, introducesaneasytowriteformalismforwritingdownthecatamorphismsint- ducedinearlierchapters. Itisshownhowquitecomplicatedcatamorphisms,that at?rstsightseemratherforbiddingbymakingextensiveuseofhigher-orderdo- VI Preface mains,canactuallybedevelopedinastep-wisefashion,usinganattributegr- marview;itisfurthermoreshownhowtorelatethiswayofprogrammingwith conceptsfromtheobject-orientedworldthusmakingclearwhatthestrengths andweaknessesofeachworldare. The?fthlecture,titledUsingMetaML:AStagedProgrammingLanguage, introducestheconceptofpartialevaluation. Itservesasanotherinstanceof thequestfor¿themostgenericofwritingprogramsatthelowestcost¿. The stagingtechniquesshowhowcoststhatwereintroducedbyaddingextralevels ofabstraction,maybemovedfromrun-timetocompile-time. Ithasbeencommonknowledgetousersofmodernfunctionallanguagesthat thetypesystemcanbeagreathelpinshorteningprogramsandreducingerrors. Intheextremeonemightseeatypeasapredicatecapturingtheproperties ofanyexpressionwiththattype. InthesixthlectureonCayenne¿Spiceup yourProgrammingwithDependentTypesitisshowninwhatdirectionfunctional languagesaremostlikelytodevelop,andwhatmaybeexpectedofthenewtype systemstobeintroduced. Thelastlecture,titledHaskellasanAutomationController,showsthat writingfunctionalprogramsdoesnothavetoimplythatoneisboundtoremain isolatedfromthe