[Colloq] REMINDER: PhD Thesis Proposal - Ryan Culpepper, 1:30pm
Rachel Kalweit
rachelb at ccs.neu.edu
Tue Dec 11 10:47:50 EST 2007
College of Computer and Information Science
PhD Thesis Proposal:
Ryan Culpepper
Thesis Title: Supporting Macros
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
1:30pm
366 West Village H
Abstract: The Scheme family of programming languages supports the introduction of new forms of expressions and definitions via macros, which encapsulate syntactic structure just like functions encapsulate
computation. Programmers use these syntactic abstractions to adapt the programming language to suit the problems that they work on. The degree of adaptation ranges from the abbreviation of common patterns to the implementation of entire (little) languages.
Unfortunately, no Scheme platform supports macro development well. Macros are like a different language superimposed on Scheme, and the machinery that supports writing robust Scheme programs does not support writing good macros. In my work I address two problems facing macro writers: first, the expansion process is complex and opaque; and second, the existing notation for writing macros makes crafting clear and robust macros hard.
I propose solutions for these two problems with macros. To clarify the expansion process, I propose a specialized debugger for macros. I have implemented such a debugger and intend to validate its correctness. To help programmers write clear, robust macros, I propose to develop a specialized language for describing the syntactic structure of macros.
Committee:
- Matthias Felleisen (advisor)
- Mitch Wand
- Olin Shivers
- Matthew Flatt ( University of Utah )
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