From dvanhorn at ccs.neu.edu  Wed Jan  4 13:23:05 2012
From: dvanhorn at ccs.neu.edu (David Van Horn)
Date: Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:23:05 -0500
Subject: [PRL] What is it like to have an understanding of very advanced X?
Message-ID: <4F049909.8060906@ccs.neu.edu>

This seems applicable beyond just math:

http://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-have-an-understanding-of-very-advanced-mathematics

David


From dherman at ccs.neu.edu  Wed Jan  4 21:00:27 2012
From: dherman at ccs.neu.edu (David Herman)
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 03:00:27 +0100
Subject: [PRL] What is it like to have an understanding of very advanced
	X?
In-Reply-To: <4F049909.8060906@ccs.neu.edu>
References: <4F049909.8060906@ccs.neu.edu>
Message-ID: <B4DB4489-292E-4A65-A962-CDD8B67B9D6E@ccs.neu.edu>

On Jan 4, 2012, at 7:23 PM, David Van Horn wrote:

> This seems applicable beyond just math:
> 
> http://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-have-an-understanding-of-very-advanced-mathematics

Awesome! And the anonymous respondent also linked to this very nice blog post from Terry Tao, which I'd not seen before:

    http://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/there%E2%80%99s-more-to-mathematics-than-rigour-and-proofs/

Dave



From clements at brinckerhoff.org  Wed Jan  4 21:10:43 2012
From: clements at brinckerhoff.org (John Clements)
Date: Wed, 4 Jan 2012 18:10:43 -0800
Subject: [PRL] What is it like to have an understanding of very advanced
	X?
In-Reply-To: <B4DB4489-292E-4A65-A962-CDD8B67B9D6E@ccs.neu.edu>
References: <4F049909.8060906@ccs.neu.edu>
	<B4DB4489-292E-4A65-A962-CDD8B67B9D6E@ccs.neu.edu>
Message-ID: <9827A4EB-5BB5-4F56-8830-DC3FE7DE81DA@brinckerhoff.org>


On Jan 4, 2012, at 6:00 PM, David Herman wrote:

> On Jan 4, 2012, at 7:23 PM, David Van Horn wrote:
> 
>> This seems applicable beyond just math:
>> 
>> http://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-have-an-understanding-of-very-advanced-mathematics
> 
> Awesome!

+1.

John

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From mwand1 at gmail.com  Mon Jan  9 07:04:27 2012
From: mwand1 at gmail.com (Mitch)
Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:04:27 +0000
Subject: [PRL] Abstracting Runtime Heaps for Program Understanding.
 (arXiv:1201.1327v1 [cs....
Message-ID: <20cf30780ad0475b3704b6173397@google.com>

  Sent to you by Mitch via Google Reader: Abstracting Runtime Heaps for
Program Understanding. (arXiv:1201.1327v1 [cs.PL]) via cs.PL updates on
arXiv.org by <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Marron_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Mark
Marron</a>, <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Sanchez_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Cesar
Sanchez</a>, <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Su_Z/0/1/0/all/0/1">Zhendong
Su</a>, <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Fahndrich_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Manuel
Fahndrich</a> on 1/8/12

Modern programming environments provide extensive support for
inspecting, analyzing, and testing programs based on the algorithmic
structure of a program. Unfortunately, support for inspecting and
understanding runtime data structures during execution is typically
much more limited. This paper provides a general purpose technique for
abstracting and summarizing entire runtime heaps. We describe the
abstract heap model and the associated algorithms for transforming a
concrete heap dump into the corresponding abstract model as well as
algorithms for merging, comparing, and computing changes between
abstract models. The abstract model is designed to emphasize high-level
concepts about heap-based data structures, such as shape and size, as
well as relationships between heap structures, such as sharing and
connectivity. We demonstrate the utility and computational tractability
of the abstract heap model by building a memory profiler. We then use
this tool to check for, pinpoint, and correct sources of memory bloat
from a suite of programs from DaCapo.

Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to cs.PL updates on arXiv.org using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites
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From wand at ccs.neu.edu  Tue Jan 10 10:41:46 2012
From: wand at ccs.neu.edu (Mitchell Wand)
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:41:46 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Fwd: [MIT-PL] 1/20: Ben Livshits on multi-execution
In-Reply-To: <CAAdC0GjOcfg3+8umzrPZfmpBQFX2HNeD8+uM67BxJ83HVuSAjw@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAAdC0GjOcfg3+8umzrPZfmpBQFX2HNeD8+uM67BxJ83HVuSAjw@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAJqwn-81M0tKSL+qWBF_h1X9Ujq1cGoBp5uRcSi6FS5iV0YJeQ@mail.gmail.com>

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jean Yang <jeanyang at csail.mit.edu>
Date: Tue, Jan 10, 2012 at 10:29 AM
Subject: [MIT-PL] 1/20: Ben Livshits on multi-execution
To: pl at lists.csail.mit.edu
Cc: Sally Lee <sally at csail.mit.edu>


Hi all,

  Next Friday we will have the pleasure of hearing Ben Livshits from
Microsoft Research speak about his work on multi-execution.

Hope to see you there.
Jean

---

Title: Multi-execution as an alternative to symbolic execution
Time: 2:30-3:30pm; refreshments at 2:15
Location: 32-G882 (8th floor reading room)

This talk will cover out recent work that explores multi-execution
techniques as an alternative to both static analysis and symbolic
execution. Our primary application is detection or malware-hosting
pages on the web. In recent years, attacks that exploit
vulnerabilities in browsers and their associated plugins have
increased significantly. These attacks are often written in JavaScript
and literally millions of URLs contain such malicious content.

While static and runtime methods for malware detection been proposed
in the literature, both on the client side, for just-in-time
in-browser detection, as well as offline, crawler-based malware
discovery, these approaches encounter the same fundamental limitation.
Web-based malware tends to be environment-specific, targeting a
particular browser, often attacking specific versions of installed
plugins. This targeting occurs because the malware exploits
vulnerabilities in specific plugins and fail otherwise. As a result, a
fundamental limitation for detecting a piece of malware is that
malware is triggered infrequently, only showing itself when the right
environment is present. In fact, we observe that using current
fingerprinting techniques, just about any piece of existing malware
may be made virtually undetectable with the current generation of
malware scanners.

We propose Rozzle, a JavaScript multi-execution virtual machine, as a
way to explore multiple execution paths within a single execution so
that environment-specific malware will reveal itself. Using
large-scale experiments, we show that Rozzle increases the detection
rate for offline runtime detection by almost seven times. In addition,
Rozzle triples the effectiveness of online runtime detection. We show
that Rozzle incurs virtually no runtime overhead and allows us to
replace multiple VMs running different browser configurations with a
single Rozzle-enabled browser, reducing the hardware requirements,
network bandwidth, and power consumption.

---

Biography:

Ben Livshits is a researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA and
an affiliate professor at the University of Washington. Originally
from St. Petersburg, Russia, he received a bachelor's degree in
Computer Science and Math from Cornell University in 1999, and his
M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University in 2002
and 2006, respectively. Dr. Livshits' research interests include
application of sophisticated static and dynamic analysis techniques to
finding errors in programs.

Ben has published papers at PLDI, POPL, Oakland Security, Usenix
Security, CCS, SOSP, ICSE, FSE, and many other venues. He is known for
his work in software reliability and especially tools to improve
software security, with a primary focus on approaches to finding
buffer overruns in C programs and a variety of security
vulnerabilities (cross-site scripting, SQL injections, etc.) in
Web-based applications. He is the author of several dozen academic
papers and patents. Lately he has been focusing on how Web 2.0
application and browser reliability, performance, and security can be
improved through a combination of static and runtime techniques. Ben
generally does not speak of himself in the third person.

http://research.microsoft.com/~livshits/

--
Jean Yang
http://people.csail.mit.edu/jeanyang

_______________________________________________
Pl mailing list
Pl at lists.csail.mit.edu
https://lists.csail.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/pl
http://projects.csail.mit.edu/pl
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From turon at ccs.neu.edu  Wed Jan 11 11:22:37 2012
From: turon at ccs.neu.edu (Aaron Turon)
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:22:37 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Derek Dreyer's visit
Message-ID: <CAGfQ5atbXC8ZtWYALVued6CJRQQibrt_QCV7Odgr1euGbpb2+Q@mail.gmail.com>

Derek Dreyer (http://www.mpi-sws.org/~dreyer/research.html) will be
visiting next week, and giving a talk on Thu 1/19.  I am proposing to
hold the talk at:

  ** Thu 1/19, 1:30-3pm **

Please let me know ASAP if this time will not work for you.

Derek will also have some (limited) time for meetings while he's here.
 If you'd like to meet with him on Thursday or Friday, please email me
and I will arrange the details.  I will give preference to those whose
research is most closely related to Derek's.

Cheers,
Aaron


From matthias at ccs.neu.edu  Wed Jan 11 11:39:45 2012
From: matthias at ccs.neu.edu (Matthias Felleisen)
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:39:45 -0500
Subject: [PRL] shriram and dan/kathi
Message-ID: <CD9ABF80-DF16-4069-AAB0-A95B43CE33FF@ccs.neu.edu>

	
Next Wednesday (1/18) we will have Shriram, Dan Dougherty and Kathi Fisler visiting the lab. Shriram will speak but DD and KF will also be available for 1-1 meetings. After discussing this with Shriram in detail, SK will be available separately from DD/KF who come as a pair. 

If you would like to meet with either SK and/or DD/KF, please let me know which times you cannot meet with them. Right now, I am counting on meetings from 2:30 through 6:30pm. I will try to allocate time slots in the morning, if there is enough demand. 

Abstract appeared on pl-seminar and is appended below. 

-- Matthias



---------------------------------------------------------------------

 Policy Analysis, an Application of Programming Language Technology

                      Shriram Krishnamurthi
                         Brown University

Access-control policies control data dissemination in domains from
health-care to social networks.  Similar policies also govern various
aspects of firewalls and routers.

The subtle nature of these policies suggests this is a natural domain
to apply formal methods, while the separate authoring of policies in
domain-specific languages affords opportunities for powerful analysis.
It is, however, unclear that the straightforward application of
verification is appropriate or useful.  The talk will describe our
work on useful forms of input and output, the concrete tools we've
produced, and our increasing use of human cognitive aspects to drive
our next generation of research in this area.

---------------------------------------------------------------------


From stamourv at ccs.neu.edu  Thu Jan 12 17:32:08 2012
From: stamourv at ccs.neu.edu (Vincent St-Amour)
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:32:08 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Torture Chamber: Monday, 2:00 PM, WVH 366
Message-ID: <87boq8zh5j.wl%stamourv@ccs.neu.edu>

I will be holding a torture chamber for my upcoming PADL talk, "Typing
the Numeric Tower"

This will be on Monday at 2:00 in 366.

Vincent


From stamourv at ccs.neu.edu  Mon Jan 16 12:17:37 2012
From: stamourv at ccs.neu.edu (Vincent St-Amour)
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:17:37 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Torture Chamber: Monday, 2:00 PM, WVH 366
In-Reply-To: <87boq8zh5j.wl%stamourv@ccs.neu.edu>
References: <87boq8zh5j.wl%stamourv@ccs.neu.edu>
Message-ID: <8739bfzhvy.wl%stamourv@ccs.neu.edu>

Just a reminder. I'm holding a torture chamber today at 2.

Vincent


At Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:32:08 -0500,
Vincent St-Amour wrote:
> 
> I will be holding a torture chamber for my upcoming PADL talk, "Typing
> the Numeric Tower"
> 
> This will be on Monday at 2:00 in 366.
> 
> Vincent
> 
> _______________________________________________
> PRL mailing list
> PRL at lists.ccs.neu.edu
> https://lists.ccs.neu.edu/bin/listinfo/prl


From dherman at ccs.neu.edu  Mon Jan 16 19:25:06 2012
From: dherman at ccs.neu.edu (David Herman)
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:25:06 -0800
Subject: [PRL] sound familiar?
Message-ID: <CA540D99-C0A7-4622-8491-3F10E32E3F53@ccs.neu.edu>

http://programmingzen.com/2012/01/16/on-the-usability-of-codecademy/

Dave



From matthias at ccs.neu.edu  Wed Jan 18 08:32:58 2012
From: matthias at ccs.neu.edu (Matthias Felleisen)
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:32:58 -0500
Subject: [PRL] reminder: Policy Analysis,
	an Application of Programming Language Technology
Message-ID: <14FF3F54-D646-4DAD-9B10-48F24D22F875@ccs.neu.edu>


Today's NUPRL Colloquium: 


---------------------------------------------------------------------

Policy Analysis, an Application of Programming Language Technology

                     Shriram Krishnamurthi
                        Brown University

Access-control policies control data dissemination in domains from
health-care to social networks.  Similar policies also govern various
aspects of firewalls and routers.

The subtle nature of these policies suggests this is a natural domain
to apply formal methods, while the separate authoring of policies in
domain-specific languages affords opportunities for powerful analysis.
It is, however, unclear that the straightforward application of
verification is appropriate or useful.  The talk will describe our
work on useful forms of input and output, the concrete tools we've
produced, and our increasing use of human cognitive aspects to drive
our next generation of research in this area.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Time: 11:45am,  Place: WVH 366


From sstrickl at ccs.neu.edu  Thu Jan 19 08:33:11 2012
From: sstrickl at ccs.neu.edu (Stevie Strickland)
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:33:11 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Door to 308 was propped open when I arrived
Message-ID: <B23D91D3-05C4-4B65-AD11-18BEE964B30E@ccs.neu.edu>

When I came into 308 this morning, the door had been propped open with the doorstop.  Kudos for not propping it open with the deadbolt, but since no one's come back to the lab 20 minutes later, I assume that it's been left open all night.  While I appreciate that it's annoying sometimes to pull out your keycard, please don't leave the lab open, even temporarily, if there's no one else around.  Also, if you're leaving the lab and notice that the door's propped open with no one inside, please close it even if you're not the person who opened it.

Thanks,
Stevie

From sstrickl at ccs.neu.edu  Thu Jan 19 10:51:20 2012
From: sstrickl at ccs.neu.edu (Stevie Strickland)
Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:51:20 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Fwd:  Door to 308 was propped open when I arrived
References: <4365BA2D-482A-4D51-8484-6876D959CBF1@gmail.com>
Message-ID: <FE1A36EB-9DCE-478A-85A0-C10DED7BA35D@ccs.neu.edu>

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ahmed Abdelmeged <ahmed.mohsen at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [PRL] Door to 308 was propped open when I arrived
> Date: January 19, 2012 10:44:06 AM EST
> To: Stevie Strickland <sstrickl at ccs.neu.edu>
> 
> Stevie,
> I turned off the lights yesterday myself.   At that time the door was locked. I think that the person who did that must have come later at night. Probably one of the janitors. This hypothesis is further supported by that janitors are unlikely to read emails on this list. Consequently, they are likely to keep doing what the audience of PRL would consider wrong.
> 
> Plz forward to prl.
> 
> -- Ahmed
> 
> On 2012-01-19, at 8:33 AM, Stevie Strickland <sstrickl at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> 
>> When I came into 308 this morning, the door had been propped open with the doorstop.  Kudos for not propping it open with the deadbolt, but since no one's come back to the lab 20 minutes later, I assume that it's been left open all night.  While I appreciate that it's annoying sometimes to pull out your keycard, please don't leave the lab open, even temporarily, if there's no one else around.  Also, if you're leaving the lab and notice that the door's propped open with no one inside, please close it even if you're not the person who opened it.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Stevie
>> _______________________________________________
>> PRL mailing list
>> PRL at lists.ccs.neu.edu
>> https://lists.ccs.neu.edu/bin/listinfo/prl
>> 



From mwand1 at gmail.com  Mon Jan 23 06:58:42 2012
From: mwand1 at gmail.com (Mitch)
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:58:42 +0000
Subject: [PRL] Secondary use of data in EHR systems. (arXiv:1201.4262v1
	[cs.PL])
Message-ID: <20cf3071cfc67fac9604b730c0a2@google.com>

Hmm, AOP, security, analysis, continuations, interesting authors.

Sent to you by Mitch via Google Reader: Secondary use of data in EHR
systems. (arXiv:1201.4262v1 [cs.PL]) via cs.PL updates on arXiv.org by
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Yang_F/0/1/0/all/0/1">Fan
Yang</a>, <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Hankin_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Chris
Hankin</a>, <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Nielson_F/0/1/0/all/0/1">Flemming
Nielson</a>, <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Nielson_H/0/1/0/all/0/1">Hanne
Riis Nielson</a> on 1/22/12

We show how to use aspect-oriented programming to separate security and
trust issues from the logical design of mobile, distributed systems.
The main challenge is how to enforce various types of security
policies, in particular predictive access control policies - policies
based on the future behavior of a program. A novel feature of our
approach is that advice is able to analyze the future use of data. We
consider a number of different security policies, concerning both
primary and secondary use of data, some of which can only be enforced
by analysis of process continuations.

Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to cs.PL updates on arXiv.org using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites
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From mwand1 at gmail.com  Tue Jan 31 07:58:25 2012
From: mwand1 at gmail.com (Mitch)
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:58:25 +0000
Subject: [PRL] On the realizability of contracts in dishonest systems.
 (arXiv:1201.6188v1 [...
Message-ID: <20cf307d06a4ceb43a04b7d284ad@google.com>

  Sent to you by Mitch via Google Reader: On the realizability of
contracts in dishonest systems. (arXiv:1201.6188v1 [cs.PL]) via cs.PL
updates on arXiv.org by <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Bartoletti_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Massimo
Bartoletti</a>, <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Tuosto_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">Emilio
Tuosto</a>, <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Zunino_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Roberto
Zunino</a> on 1/30/12

We develop a theory of contracting systems, where behavioural contracts
may be violated by dishonest participants after they have been agreed
upon - unlike in traditional approaches based on behavioural types. We
consider the contracts of \cite{CastagnaPadovaniGesbert09toplas}, and
we embed them in a calculus that allows distributed participants to
advertise contracts, reach agreements, query the fulfilment of
contracts, and realise them (or choose not to).

Our contract theory makes explicit who is culpable at each step of a
computation. A participant is honest in a given context S when she is
not culpable in each possible interaction with S. Our main result is a
sufficient criterion for classifying a participant as honest in all
possible contexts.

Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to cs.PL updates on arXiv.org using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites
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From matthias at ccs.neu.edu  Tue Jan 31 08:16:47 2012
From: matthias at ccs.neu.edu (Matthias Felleisen)
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:16:47 -0500
Subject: [PRL] On the realizability of contracts in dishonest systems.
	(arXiv:1201.6188v1 [...
In-Reply-To: <20cf307d06a4ceb43a04b7d284ad@google.com>
References: <20cf307d06a4ceb43a04b7d284ad@google.com>
Message-ID: <0B2322A2-C339-4D76-862D-6F72191018C4@ccs.neu.edu>


Their notion of 'behavioral contract' is about [non-functional] protocol specifications, quite different from the behavioral contracts of Eiffel and friends. 


On Jan 31, 2012, at 7:58 AM, Mitch wrote:

>  
>  
> Sent to you by Mitch via Google Reader:
>  
>  
> On the realizability of contracts in dishonest systems. (arXiv:1201.6188v1 [cs.PL])
> via cs.PL updates on arXiv.org by <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Bartoletti_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Massimo Bartoletti</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Tuosto_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">Emilio Tuosto</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Zunino_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Roberto Zunino</a> on 1/30/12
> We develop a theory of contracting systems, where behavioural contracts may be violated by dishonest participants after they have been agreed upon - unlike in traditional approaches based on behavioural types. We consider the contracts of \cite{CastagnaPadovaniGesbert09toplas}, and we embed them in a calculus that allows distributed participants to advertise contracts, reach agreements, query the fulfilment of contracts, and realise them (or choose not to).
> 
> Our contract theory makes explicit who is culpable at each step of a computation. A participant is honest in a given context S when she is not culpable in each possible interaction with S. Our main result is a sufficient criterion for classifying a participant as honest in all possible contexts.
> 
> 
>  
>  
> Things you can do from here:
> Subscribe to cs.PL updates on arXiv.org using Google Reader
> Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites
>  
>  
> _______________________________________________
> PRL mailing list
> PRL at lists.ccs.neu.edu
> https://lists.ccs.neu.edu/bin/listinfo/prl

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From turon at ccs.neu.edu  Tue Jan 31 11:46:37 2012
From: turon at ccs.neu.edu (Aaron Turon)
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:46:37 -0500
Subject: [PRL] POPL recap: Wednesday
Message-ID: <CAGfQ5atM8RX35t6j0d3784oO3H+=4pgZNbjPLiHBOn6aQRR9NA@mail.gmail.com>

A heads-up: we are planning to hold a POPL recap session tomorrow
(Wednesday).  The exact schedule is TBD, but will most likely be
during the standard 1145 seminar slot.  I'll send out another email as
soon as I know for sure.


From dougorleans at gmail.com  Tue Jan 31 12:39:28 2012
From: dougorleans at gmail.com (Doug Orleans)
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:39:28 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Palindromic programs
Message-ID: <CA+Ba3GP2smc0oNmfPgVdd0=BOyOHA5mOeP5v_gd6LQsH_TtGhw@mail.gmail.com>

This morning I wondered what the longest (ignoring whitespace)
palindromic Racket program was.  Obviously any palindromic integer is
a program, but that's not too interesting.  There's also "(quote
etouq)" but I couldn't think of a good way to extend that.  Then I
came up with this:

(letrec ((letrec letrec) (certel certel)) certel)

This can be extended indefinitely:

(letrec ((letrec letrec) (gateman stressed) (nametag desserts)
(stressed gateman) (desserts nametag) (certel certel)) certel)

These just return #<undefined>, though.  Is there a palindromic
program that actually does something interesting?

--Doug

P.S. Here's a palindromic quine in C:
http://www.derf.net/palindromes/old.palindrome.html#CODE


From will at ccs.neu.edu  Tue Jan 31 15:17:56 2012
From: will at ccs.neu.edu (will at ccs.neu.edu)
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:17:56 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [PRL] Palindromic programs
In-Reply-To: <7994539.260101328040660721.JavaMail.root@zimbra>
Message-ID: <27041124.260341328041076290.JavaMail.root@zimbra>

Doug Orleans wrote:
> These just return #<undefined>, though.  Is there a palindromic
> program that actually does something interesting?

Possibly.  Here's an idea that should be generalizable:

((lambda (lambda adbmal x) adbmal)
 (+)
 (+)
 (lambda (x lambda adbmal) adbmal))

Will


From turon at ccs.neu.edu  Tue Jan 31 15:40:23 2012
From: turon at ccs.neu.edu (Aaron Turon)
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:40:23 -0500
Subject: [PRL] POPL recap: ** NOW THURSDAY **
Message-ID: <CAGfQ5at3zgdVigZW3aEs3E52eTVV91LV=UTHWqA77wEFJM90Yw@mail.gmail.com>

Unfortunately, it was not possible to move around class schedules to
do the recap on Wednesday.  Instead, we will hold in on:

  Thursday, Feb 2, WVH366 from 1:45-3pm (the same as Derek's talk)

Please join us for what should be a very fun recap session!

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Aaron Turon <turon at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> A heads-up: we are planning to hold a POPL recap session tomorrow
> (Wednesday). ?The exact schedule is TBD, but will most likely be
> during the standard 1145 seminar slot. ?I'll send out another email as
> soon as I know for sure.


From dougorleans at gmail.com  Tue Jan 31 16:48:35 2012
From: dougorleans at gmail.com (Doug Orleans)
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:48:35 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Palindromic programs
In-Reply-To: <27041124.260341328041076290.JavaMail.root@zimbra>
References: <7994539.260101328040660721.JavaMail.root@zimbra>
	<27041124.260341328041076290.JavaMail.root@zimbra>
Message-ID: <CA+Ba3GOYr3npusGg0vhKessPiwtMiemBx7XqYwhmcj7=E4zaNA@mail.gmail.com>

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 3:17 PM,  <will at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> Doug Orleans wrote:
>> These just return #<undefined>, though. ?Is there a palindromic
>> program that actually does something interesting?
>
> Possibly. ?Here's an idea that should be generalizable:
>
> ((lambda (lambda adbmal x) adbmal)
> ?(+)
> ?(+)
> ?(lambda (x lambda adbmal) adbmal))

Very nice!

I just realized we're fudging the definition of 'palindrome' to allow
parenthesis reversal...

--Doug


From turon at ccs.neu.edu  Sun Feb  5 22:23:32 2012
From: turon at ccs.neu.edu (Aaron Turon)
Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2012 22:23:32 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Mike Dodds's visit
Message-ID: <CAGfQ5avAyDPGTK3r6r9BVkA2zS6DMcyAm2OZLRtbLxuXC_FzLQ@mail.gmail.com>

Mike Dodds (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~md466/) will be visiting the lab
this week, on Tuesday 2/7.  Mike has done work on manual and automatic
verification of concurrent programs and data structures, and has also
worked on automatic parallelization.  He'll be giving a talk on some
very neat work called "deny-guarantee reasoning" -- the announcement
should go early tomorrow.

Please let me know if you'd like to meet with Mike on Tuesday.  He'll
be in the lab for the full day.

Thanks,

Aaron


From samth at ccs.neu.edu  Sun Feb  5 22:26:09 2012
From: samth at ccs.neu.edu (Sam Tobin-Hochstadt)
Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2012 22:26:09 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Mike Dodds's visit
In-Reply-To: <CAGfQ5avAyDPGTK3r6r9BVkA2zS6DMcyAm2OZLRtbLxuXC_FzLQ@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAGfQ5avAyDPGTK3r6r9BVkA2zS6DMcyAm2OZLRtbLxuXC_FzLQ@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAK=HD+Zdp1rCyPogwysRTWMSDUJxY6p9NN3VtsuDy=PFBgYJ=Q@mail.gmail.com>

I'd love to meet with Mike.

On Sun, Feb 5, 2012 at 10:23 PM, Aaron Turon <turon at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> Mike Dodds (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~md466/) will be visiting the lab
> this week, on Tuesday 2/7. ?Mike has done work on manual and automatic
> verification of concurrent programs and data structures, and has also
> worked on automatic parallelization. ?He'll be giving a talk on some
> very neat work called "deny-guarantee reasoning" -- the announcement
> should go early tomorrow.
>
> Please let me know if you'd like to meet with Mike on Tuesday. ?He'll
> be in the lab for the full day.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Aaron
>
> _______________________________________________
> PRL mailing list
> PRL at lists.ccs.neu.edu
> https://lists.ccs.neu.edu/bin/listinfo/prl



-- 
sam th
samth at ccs.neu.edu


From turon at ccs.neu.edu  Wed Feb  8 17:50:11 2012
From: turon at ccs.neu.edu (Aaron Turon)
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2012 17:50:11 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Matthew Fluet on Friday 2/10
Message-ID: <CAGfQ5avn=-EOD2jadG+4nD9sUBNLvCn23zSM3jbQntGN3KOcVg@mail.gmail.com>

Matthew Fluet (http://www.cs.rit.edu/~mtf/) will be here on Friday,
2/10 for Jesse's defense.  He'll have some time (not tons) for meeting
with students or faculty during the rest of the day.  If you're
interested, please let me know and give me your scheduling
constraints.


From asumu at ccs.neu.edu  Sat Feb 18 10:58:14 2012
From: asumu at ccs.neu.edu (Asumu Takikawa)
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:58:14 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Julia: new language for scientific computing
Message-ID: <20120218155814.GZ11124@howl.undo.it>

http://julialang.org/blog/2012/02/why-we-created-julia/

Heavily inspired by Lisp, but aimed at scientific computation. It has
macros for a non-sexpression syntax (no real hygiene though).

Cheers,
Asumu


From dimvar at ccs.neu.edu  Sat Feb 18 13:03:03 2012
From: dimvar at ccs.neu.edu (Dimitris Vardoulakis)
Date: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:03:03 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Julia: new language for scientific computing
In-Reply-To: <20120218155814.GZ11124@howl.undo.it>
References: <20120218155814.GZ11124@howl.undo.it>
Message-ID: <CAKM=X_5A-Z6W86U0-4iP+eBb3NVuv6tuXktvAxenJ8RMK+W2hA@mail.gmail.com>

Looks pretty neat, thanks for sharing! I really like how they allow
you to name the cores and decide where to send data to. The gradual
type system also looks interesting (I couldn't seem to find any
discussion of type checking or type inference in the manual though).


On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 10:58 AM, Asumu Takikawa <asumu at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> http://julialang.org/blog/2012/02/why-we-created-julia/
>
> Heavily inspired by Lisp, but aimed at scientific computation. It has
> macros for a non-sexpression syntax (no real hygiene though).
>
> Cheers,
> Asumu
>
> _______________________________________________
> PRL mailing list
> PRL at lists.ccs.neu.edu
> https://lists.ccs.neu.edu/bin/listinfo/prl



-- 
Dimitris


From mwand1 at gmail.com  Sat Feb 25 09:02:47 2012
From: mwand1 at gmail.com (Mitch)
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:02:47 +0000
Subject: [PRL] An Exercise in Invariant-based Programming with Interactive
 and Automatic Th...
Message-ID: <bcaec502d884fa634f04b9ca54bf@google.com>

fwiw...

Sent to you by Mitch via Google Reader: An Exercise in Invariant-based
Programming with Interactive and Automatic Theorem Prover Support.
(arXiv:1202.4829v1 [cs.LO]) via cs.PL updates on arXiv.org by
Ralph-Johan Back (?bo Akademi University), Johannes Eriksson (?bo
Akademi University) on 2/22/12

Invariant-Based Programming (IBP) is a diagram-based
correct-by-construction programming methodology in which the program is
structured around the invariants, which are additionally formulated
before the actual code. Socos is a program construction and
verification environment built specifically to support IBP. The
front-end to Socos is a graphical diagram editor, allowing the
programmer to construct invariant-based programs and check their
correctness. The back-end component of Socos, the program checker,
computes the verification conditions of the program and tries to prove
them automatically. It uses the theorem prover PVS and the SMT solver
Yices to discharge as many of the verification conditions as possible
without user interaction. In this paper, we first describe the Socos
environment from a user and systems level perspective; we then
exemplify the IBP workflow by building a verified implementation of
heapsort in Socos. The case study highlights the role of both automatic
and interactive theorem proving in three sequential stages of the IBP
workflow: developing the background theory, formulating the program
specification and invariants, and proving the correctness of the final
implementation.

Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to cs.PL updates on arXiv.org using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites
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From mwand1 at gmail.com  Sat Feb 25 09:06:49 2012
From: mwand1 at gmail.com (Mitch)
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 14:06:49 +0000
Subject: [PRL] Automated Generation of User Guidance by Combining
	Computation and Deduction...
Message-ID: <20cf307f34926ea1f704b9ca635e@google.com>

FYI: I post these if the abstract suggests there's even some vague
connection to something we're interested in. Feel free to hit "delete".

Sent to you by Mitch via Google Reader: Automated Generation of User
Guidance by Combining Computation and Deduction. (arXiv:1202.4832v1
[cs.LO]) via cs.PL updates on arXiv.org by <a
href="http://arxiv.org/find/cs/1/au:+Neuper_W/0/1/0/all/0/1">Walther
Neuper</a> on 2/22/12

Herewith, a fairly old concept is published for the first time and
named "Lucas Interpretation". This has been implemented in a prototype,
which has been proved useful in educational practice and has gained
academic relevance with an emerging generation of educational
mathematics assistants (EMA) based on Computer Theorem Proving (CTP).

Automated Theorem Proving (ATP), i.e. deduction, is the most reliable
technology used to check user input. However ATP is inherently weak in
automatically generating solutions for arbitrary problems in applied
mathematics. This weakness is crucial for EMAs: when ATP checks user
input as incorrect and the learner gets stuck then the system should be
able to suggest possible next steps.

The key idea of Lucas Interpretation is to compute the steps of a
calculation following a program written in a novel CTP-based
programming language, i.e. computation provides the next steps. User
guidance is generated by combining deduction and computation: the
latter is performed by a specific language interpreter, which works
like a debugger and hands over control to the learner at breakpoints,
i.e. tactics generating the steps of calculation. The interpreter also
builds up logical contexts providing ATP with the data required for
checking user input, thus combining computation and deduction.

The paper describes the concepts underlying Lucas Interpretation so
that open questions can adequately be addressed, and prerequisites for
further work are provided.

Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to cs.PL updates on arXiv.org using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites
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From wand at ccs.neu.edu  Sat Feb 25 13:08:16 2012
From: wand at ccs.neu.edu (Mitchell Wand)
Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:08:16 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Fwd: Google is Hiring PhDs!
In-Reply-To: <20120224075959.D902B5C00E8@hpza9.eem.corp.google.com>
References: <20120224075959.D902B5C00E8@hpza9.eem.corp.google.com>
Message-ID: <CAJqwn--p=6Lu1A6V8fF47S0RFU0nrMYnAPCexDfYAZ69=Pc4+g@mail.gmail.com>

Down with the old Borg, up with the new Borg!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Zoanna Jones <zoanna at google.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 2:59 AM
Subject: Google is Hiring PhDs!
To: wand at ccs.neu.edu


 *Hello Mitchell,

Google strongly believes that PhDs play a pivotal role in tackling global
problems by asking the questions and building the tools that create or
improve products which help make sense of all the world's information.

We?re always looking for the best and the brightest PhD students to fill
our technical roles, and we often rely on university faculty to let us know
who the top students are in their programs. As a valued member of the
Northeastern community, we'd like to ask for your help in identifying top
students who are looking for full-time or internship positions this year.

If you are interested in referring a PhD student at your university for a
position at Google, please complete this
form<https://docs.google.com/a/google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?key=0AjjCC3QtYcL6cHVJdE9PMHdTN2tXTWtoamQtN1J2Qnc&hl=en_US#gid=0>.
Members of the Google University Programs team will regularly review these
submissions, and follow up with interviews for eligible candidates.

To learn more about the challenges that PhDs at Google are tackling, please
visit research.google.com.

I?ve also included an email announcement below my signature that you can
forward on to your PhD students that highlights the current roles we?re
recruiting for. If you have questions, or would like to follow up on the
status of a previously referred student, please don't hesitate to reach
out!

Thanks,
Zoanna

--------------------------------

Are you graduating in 2012?  Still looking for a full-time opportunity?

Google is looking for the best and brightest computer science students from
Northeastern! Interested in joining the company Fortune & CNN ranked the #1
place to work<http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/19/best-companies-google-larry-page/?iid=HP_LN>?
 Check out and apply for our full-time PhD opportunities at
http://www.google.com/jobs/students/tech/phd/.

There are many opportunities for
PhDs<http://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/phd_flier_actual_final.pdf>at
Google to make immediate impact and work on real problems.  Google
strives to provide an environment of on-going learning where advanced
technical development and innovation are the priorities.  Our engineers are
also encouraged to make contributions to the computer science community
through a variety of professional development activities, such as attending
conferences, publishing papers <http://research.google.com/pubs/papers.html>,
open source, and more.

Check out more on our Research at Google page
<http://research.google.com/>.<http://google.com/students>

Not graduating this year?

We are also hiring PhD interns for summer 2012.  Apply directly to the PhD
internship posting - Software Engineering Intern, PhD, Summer - North
America Locations<http://www.google.com/jobs/students/tech/phd/software-engineering-intern-phd-summer-north-america-locations-1/index.html>.
 We?ll be reviewing applications on a rolling basis.  Stay in touch with
new programs and announcements by following us on our Google Students
+Page<https://plus.google.com/u/0/101571483150813305324/posts>
!*
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From wand at ccs.neu.edu  Thu Mar  1 10:02:12 2012
From: wand at ccs.neu.edu (Mitchell Wand)
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 10:02:12 -0500
Subject: [PRL] Pitching: The first 8 words - Global Business Hub - Boston.com
Message-ID: <CAJqwn-_CQopAW-6qojbk9KCJ1UOtCM9O2RLR3bpyJ+r026u7sQ@mail.gmail.com>

Probably good advice for other kinds of talks, too..

http://www.boston.com/business/blogs/global-business-hub/2012/02/the_first_8_wor.html?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed5
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From chrdimo at ccs.neu.edu  Tue Mar 13 10:01:52 2012
From: chrdimo at ccs.neu.edu (Christos Dimoulas)
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:01:52 -0400
Subject: [PRL] ESOP Torture chamber Thursday March 15 13:00-14:00 @ 366
Message-ID: <4F5F5350.2070202@ccs.neu.edu>

Hi everyone,

I am planning to have a torture chamber for my upcoming ESOP talk this 
Thursday from 13:00 to 14:00 at 366.

I would be grateful if you could attend and give me your feedback.

Thank you.

.Christos



From chrdimo at ccs.neu.edu  Wed Mar 14 17:14:26 2012
From: chrdimo at ccs.neu.edu (Christos Dimoulas)
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 17:14:26 -0400
Subject: [PRL] *** NEW TIME *** ESOP Torture chamber Thursday March 15
 13:45-15:00 @ 366
In-Reply-To: <4F5F5350.2070202@ccs.neu.edu>
References: <4F5F5350.2070202@ccs.neu.edu>
Message-ID: <4F610A32.6090802@ccs.neu.edu>



We will have to move the talk a little bit later to avoid a conflict 
with Sam's class.
The new time is 13:45. I have the room until 15:00.

Thanks.

On 3/13/12 10:01 AM, Christos Dimoulas wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I am planning to have a torture chamber for my upcoming ESOP talk this
> Thursday from 13:00 to 14:00 at 366.
>
> I would be grateful if you could attend and give me your feedback.
>
> Thank you.
>
> .Christos
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> PRL mailing list
> PRL at lists.ccs.neu.edu
> https://lists.ccs.neu.edu/bin/listinfo/prl



From stchang at ccs.neu.edu  Mon Mar 19 14:36:37 2012
From: stchang at ccs.neu.edu (Stephen Chang)
Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:36:37 -0400
Subject: [PRL] ESOP Torture chamber Wed March 21 4pm @ 366
Message-ID: <CAFfiA1JysAVv8TtV1CX_mYEcjwn=yT0WwLf_XMevAzXRxSMatA@mail.gmail.com>

Hi everyone,

I'm having a torture chamber for my upcoming ESOP talk this Wednesday,
March 21st, at 4pm in 366.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Steve


From stchang at ccs.neu.edu  Wed Mar 21 14:41:17 2012
From: stchang at ccs.neu.edu (Stephen Chang)
Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:41:17 -0400
Subject: [PRL] ESOP Torture chamber Wed March 21 4pm @ 366
In-Reply-To: <CAFfiA1JysAVv8TtV1CX_mYEcjwn=yT0WwLf_XMevAzXRxSMatA@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAFfiA1JysAVv8TtV1CX_mYEcjwn=yT0WwLf_XMevAzXRxSMatA@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAFfiA1+q4wkEkEmc6KPEWr=2NTij7TrZZ4PFHoytVviLJBOcxg@mail.gmail.com>

Just a reminder that I'll be holding a torture chamber today at 4pm in 366.

I would be grateful for any feedback.





On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 2:36 PM, Stephen Chang <stchang at ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm having a torture chamber for my upcoming ESOP talk this Wednesday,
> March 21st, at 4pm in 366.
>
> I would appreciate any feedback.
>
> Steve


From dvanhorn at ccs.neu.edu  Thu Mar 22 10:47:27 2012
From: dvanhorn at ccs.neu.edu (David Van Horn)
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:47:27 -0400
Subject: [PRL] Fwd: [NJ-pls] IBM Programming Languages Day
In-Reply-To: <20120322142315.GA28268@mantle.bostoncoop.net>
References: <20120322142315.GA28268@mantle.bostoncoop.net>
Message-ID: <4F6B3B7F.2070103@ccs.neu.edu>



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [NJ-pls] IBM Programming Languages Day
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:23:15 +0900
From: Chung-chieh Shan <ccshan at post.harvard.edu>
To: nj-pls at lists.seas.upenn.edu

----- Forwarded message from Julian Dolby <dolby at us.ibm.com> -----

Programming Languages Day 2012

The 2012 Programming Languages Day will be held at the IBM Thomas J. Watson
Research Center on Friday, June 29, 2012. The day will be held in
cooperation with the New Jersey and New England Programming Languages and
Systems Seminars. The main goal of the event is to increase awareness of
each other's work, and to encourage interaction and collaboration.

The Programming Languages Day features a keynote presentation and
approximately 5 regular presentations. Dr. Shriram Krishnamurthi of Brown
University will deliver the keynote presentation this year.

If you would like to present your work, please send a title and abstract to
dolby at us.ibm.com by May 1, 2012. Tutorials or joint presentations are
welcome. We also solicit input on topics or particular presentations that
would be of interest to attendees. Notification of accepted abstracts will
be sent approximately by May 30, 2012.

You are welcome from 9AM onwards, and the keynote presentation will start
at 10AM sharp. We expect the program to run until 4PM. The Programming
Languages day will be held in room GN-F15 in the Hawthorne-1 building in
Hawthorne, New York.

If you plan to attend the Programming Languages Day, please register by
sending an e-mail with your name, affiliation, and contact information to
dolby at us.ibm.com so that we can plan for lunch and refreshments to be
available.

Program committee:
       Patrick Cousot, ?cole Normale Sup?rieure and New York University
       Julian Dolby, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
       John Field, Google
       Martin Rinard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Information on Programming Languages Day is available at:
http://researcher.ibm.com/project/3198

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From wand at ccs.neu.edu  Tue Mar 27 08:01:57 2012
From: wand at ccs.neu.edu (Mitchell Wand)
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:01:57 -0400
Subject: [PRL] A Picture of Language - NYTimes.com
Message-ID: <CAJqwn--iCKx8mfj9VqHxSMPQbdv2A_ot8LwrEv5h+CHYf493xQ@mail.gmail.com>

The origin of sentence diagramming.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/a-picture-of-language/
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From clements at brinckerhoff.org  Tue Mar 27 14:16:18 2012
From: clements at brinckerhoff.org (John Clements)
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:16:18 -0700
Subject: [PRL] A Picture of Language - NYTimes.com
In-Reply-To: <CAJqwn--iCKx8mfj9VqHxSMPQbdv2A_ot8LwrEv5h+CHYf493xQ@mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAJqwn--iCKx8mfj9VqHxSMPQbdv2A_ot8LwrEv5h+CHYf493xQ@mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <F408B0E2-46B3-4885-9F60-5F76DECBE926@brinckerhoff.org>


On Mar 27, 2012, at 5:01 AM, Mitchell Wand wrote:

> The origin of sentence diagramming.

Related question: should first-year programming students be able to "diagram" their code? Specifically, should they be able to identify all nested expressions?

John

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From matthias at ccs.neu.edu  Tue Mar 27 16:26:06 2012
From: matthias at ccs.neu.edu (Matthias Felleisen)
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:26:06 -0400
Subject: [PRL] A Picture of Language - NYTimes.com
In-Reply-To: <F408B0E2-46B3-4885-9F60-5F76DECBE926@brinckerhoff.org>
References: <CAJqwn--iCKx8mfj9VqHxSMPQbdv2A_ot8LwrEv5h+CHYf493xQ@mail.gmail.com>
	<F408B0E2-46B3-4885-9F60-5F76DECBE926@brinckerhoff.org>
Message-ID: <D7D9E56B-52D0-48F7-A6E8-4AD52642008B@ccs.neu.edu>


On Mar 27, 2012, at 2:16 PM, John Clements wrote:

> 
> On Mar 27, 2012, at 5:01 AM, Mitchell Wand wrote:
> 
>> The origin of sentence diagramming.
> 
> Related question: should first-year programming students be able to "diagram" their code? Specifically, should they be able to identify all nested expressions?


My first programming course required (1) reading and understanding the Algol 60 report grammar and (2) being able to 'parse' an Algol program (if you have seen the back of the Pascal report, you know what I mean). Evaluation problems were done by example -- no real rules.