A strict functional language with cyclic recursive data

Abstract

Abstract The paper proposes a strict functional language to program with cyclic recursive data structures. In the language, each recursive datum is represented by a system of equations. Cyclic structures are naturally expressed by this representation, and the language provides a general mechanism that transforms several such systems of equations into a single new system of equations. An operational semantics and a polymorphic type system for the language are given, and a type soundness proof is sketched. Finally, it is also shown that the language can be implemented in a data-parallel fashion.