Cambridge Journals Online

Embedded interpreters

Abstract

This is a tutorial on using type-indexed embedding/projection pairs when writing interpreters in statically-typed functional languages. The method allows (higher-order) values in the interpreting language to be embedded in the interpreted language and values from the interpreted language may be projected back into the interpreting one. This is particularly useful when adding command-line interfaces or scripting languages to applications written in functional languages. We first describe the basic idea and show how it may be extended to languages with recursive types and applied to elementary meta-programming. We then show how the method combines with Filinski's continuation-based monadic reflection operations to define an ‚extensional’ version of the call-by-value monadic translation and hence to allow values to be mapped bidirectionally between the levels of an interpreter for a functional language parameterized by an arbitrary monad. Finally, we show how SML functions may be embedded into, and projected from, an interpreter for an asynchronous $\pi$-calculus via an ‘extensional’ variant of a standard translation from $\lambda$ into $\pi$.