@article{lh_bernardy_2017,
author = {Bernardy, Jean-Philippe and Boespflug, Mathieu and Newton, Ryan R. and Peyton Jones, Simon and Spiwack, Arnaud},
title = {Linear Haskell: practical linearity in a higher-order polymorphic language},
year = {2017},
issue_date = {January 2018},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
address = {New York, NY, USA},
volume = {2},
number = {POPL},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3158093},
doi = {10.1145/3158093},
abstract = {Linear type systems have a long and storied history, but not a clear path forward to integrate with existing languages such as OCaml or Haskell. In this paper, we study a linear type system designed with two crucial properties in mind: backwards-compatibility and code reuse across linear and non-linear users of a library. Only then can the benefits of linear types permeate conventional functional programming. Rather than bifurcate types into linear and non-linear counterparts, we instead attach linearity to function arrows. Linear functions can receive inputs from linearly-bound values, but can also operate over unrestricted, regular values. To demonstrate the efficacy of our linear type system&nbsp;—&nbsp;both how easy it can be integrated in an existing language implementation and how streamlined it makes it to write programs with linear types&nbsp;—&nbsp;we implemented our type system in ghc, the leading Haskell compiler, and demonstrate two kinds of applications of linear types: mutable data with pure interfaces; and enforcing protocols in I/O-performing functions.},
journal = {Proc. ACM Program. Lang.},
month = dec,
articleno = {5},
numpages = {29},
keywords = {typestate, polymorphism, linear types, linear logic, laziness, Haskell, GHC}
}
