CS 4536 Homework 5: Type Checking

Due: Thursday, March 2, 5pm via turnin (assignment name hwk5), with one part due on paper as described below
Collaboration Policy: Pairs Permitted

Warning: Doing this assignment instead of type inference will cap your course grade at B.


The Assignment: Write a Type Checker

In this assignment, you will work with a typed language that includes numbers, booleans, conditionals, functions, and numeric lists. The concrete syntax for the language is given by the following BNF grammars:

   <expr> ::= <num>
            | true
            | false
            | {+ <expr> <expr>}
            | {- <expr> <expr>}
            | {* <expr> <expr>}
            | {iszero <expr>}
            | {bif <expr> <expr> <expr>}

            | <id>

            | {with {<id> <expr>} <expr>}
            | {fun {<id> : <type>} : <type> <expr>}
            | {<expr> <expr>}

            | nempty
            | {ncons <expr> <expr>}
            | {nempty? <expr>}
            | {nfirst <expr>}
            | {nrest <expr>}

   <type> ::= number
            | boolean
            | nlist
            | (<type> -> <type>)
  
In the surface syntax for types, base types are represented by symbols, and the arrow type by a Scheme list of three elements: the type of the argument, the symbol ->, and the type of the result.

You have not implemented some of these constructs yet, but they should be familiar:

You have three tasks:
  1. Define the function parse, which consumes the concrete representation of a program in the grammar given above and returns its abstract syntax tree.

  2. Write down type judgments for the five numeric list constructs: nempty, ncons, nempty?, nfirst, and nrest. Turn in hard copy for this part to Prof Fisler.

  3. Implement the function type-of, which consumes the abstract representation of a program (i.e. the result of parse) and an escape continuation that accepts a string. If the program has no type errors, type-of returns the type of the program, using the names of the types given in the grammar above. If the program does have a type error, type-of invokes the continuation with some string as an argument. For example:

          (let/cc esc (type-of (parse '{+ 1 2}) esc))
        
    should produce number, while:
          (let/cc esc (type-of (parse '{3 4}) esc))
        
    would invoke esc with some string, (e.g. "Number is not a function").


What to Turn In

Submit a single Scheme file called checkers.ss containing your code and test cases for the parser and type checker. Submit the type judgments on paper to Prof Fisler, either in class or in the box on the wall outside her office door.


FAQ

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