Index: doc/theses/aaron_moss_PhD/phd/frontpgs.tex
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 \begin{center}\textbf{Abstract}\end{center}
 
-This is the abstract.
+	The C programming language has been an important software development tool for decades.
+	\CFA{} is a new programming language designed with strong backwards-compatibility to take advantage of widely distributed C programming expertise and the large deployed base of C code, paired with modern language features to improve developer productivity. 
+	
+	This thesis presents a number of improvements to \CFA{}. 
+	The author has developed one major new language feature, generic types, in a way that integrates naturally with both the existing polymorphism features of \CFA{} and the translation-unit-based encapsulation model of C. 
+	This thesis also presents a number of smaller refinements to the \CFA{} overload resolution rules, each of which improves the expressivity or intuitive nature of the language. 
+	
+	This thesis also includes a number of practical improvements to \CFA{} compilation performance, focused on the expression resolution pass which is the main bottleneck. 
+	These include better algorithms for argument-parameter matching and type assertion satisfaction, as well as a new type environment data structure based on a novel variant of union-find. 
+	The compilation performance improvements have all been experimentally validated with a new prototype system which encapsulates the key aspects of the \CFA{} language; this prototype is a promising basis for future research, and is a technical contribution of this work.
 
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