Article

A theory of hygienic macros

Authors:

Mitchell WandAuthors Info & Claims

ESOP'08/ETAPS'08: Proceedings of the Theory and practice of software, 17th European conference on Programming languages and systems

Pages 48 - 62

Published: 29 March 2008 Publication History

Abstract

Hygienic macro systems, such as Scheme's, automatically rename variables to prevent unintentional variable capture--in short, they "just work." Yet hygiene has never been formally presented as a specification rather than an algorithm. According to folklore, the definition of hygienicmacro expansion hinges on the preservation of alpha-equivalence. But the only known notion of alpha-equivalence for programs with macros depends on the results of macro expansion! We break this circularity by introducing explicit binding specifications into the syntax of macro definitions, permitting a definition of alpha-equivalence independent of expansion. We define a semantics for a first-order subset of Scheme-like macros and prove hygiene as a consequence of confluence.

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Cited By

Pombrio JKrishnamurthi S(2018)Inferring type rules for syntactic sugarACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3296979.319239853:4(812-825)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3296979.3192398
Omar CAldrich J(2018)Reasonably programmable literal notationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/32368012:ICFP(1-32)Online publication date: 30-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3236801
Pombrio JKrishnamurthi SFoster JGrossman D(2018)Inferring type rules for syntactic sugarProceedings of the 39th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3192366.3192398(812-825)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3192366.3192398
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cover image Guide Proceedings

ESOP'08/ETAPS'08: Proceedings of the Theory and practice of software, 17th European conference on Programming languages and systems

March 2008

398 pages

ISBN:3540787380

Editor:
Sophia Drossopoulou
Imperial College London, Department of Computing, London, UK

In-Cooperation

EAPLS: European Association for Programming Languages and Systems
EATCS: European Association for Theoretical Computer Science
European Association of Software Science and Technology

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Springer-Verlag

Berlin, Heidelberg

Publication History

Published: 29 March 2008

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Cited By

Pombrio JKrishnamurthi S(2018)Inferring type rules for syntactic sugarACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/3296979.319239853:4(812-825)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3296979.3192398
Omar CAldrich J(2018)Reasonably programmable literal notationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/32368012:ICFP(1-32)Online publication date: 30-Jul-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3236801
Pombrio JKrishnamurthi SFoster JGrossman D(2018)Inferring type rules for syntactic sugarProceedings of the 39th ACM SIGPLAN Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation10.1145/3192366.3192398(812-825)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3192366.3192398
Schuster CDisney TFlanagan C(2016)MacroficationProceedings of the 25th European Symposium on Programming Languages and Systems - Volume 963210.5555/3089528.3089553(644-671)Online publication date: 2-Apr-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3089528.3089553
Hansen DSchneider DLeuschel M(2016)Using B and ProB for Data Validation ProjectsProceedings of the 5th International Conference on Abstract State Machines, Alloy, B, TLA, VDM, and Z - Volume 967510.1007/978-3-319-33600-8_10(167-182)Online publication date: 23-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-319-33600-8_10
Pombrio JKrishnamurthi S(2015)Hygienic resugaring of compositional desugaringACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/2858949.278475550:9(75-87)Online publication date: 29-Aug-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2858949.2784755
Pombrio JKrishnamurthi SFisher KReppy J(2015)Hygienic resugaring of compositional desugaringProceedings of the 20th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming10.1145/2784731.2784755(75-87)Online publication date: 29-Aug-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2784731.2784755
Adams M(2015)Towards the Essence of HygieneACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/2775051.267701350:1(457-469)Online publication date: 14-Jan-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2775051.2677013
Adams MRajamani SWalker D(2015)Towards the Essence of HygieneProceedings of the 42nd Annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages10.1145/2676726.2677013(457-469)Online publication date: 14-Jan-2015
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Clark T(2015)XPLScience of Computer Programming10.1016/j.scico.2014.08.00598:P4(589-616)Online publication date: 1-Feb-2015
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