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    r5346dce r9a72c4d  
    11\documentclass[AMA,STIX1COL]{WileyNJD-v2}
    2 \setlength\typewidth{170mm}
    3 \setlength\textwidth{170mm}
    42
    53\articletype{RESEARCH ARTICLE}%
    64
    7 \received{12 March 2018}
    8 \revised{8 May 2018}
    9 \accepted{28 June 2018}
    10 
    11 \setlength\typewidth{168mm}
    12 \setlength\textwidth{168mm}
     5\received{26 April 2016}
     6\revised{6 June 2016}
     7\accepted{6 June 2016}
     8
    139\raggedbottom
    1410
     
    191187}
    192188
    193 \title{\texorpdfstring{\protect\CFA : Adding modern programming language features to C}{Cforall : Adding modern programming language features to C}}
     189\title{\texorpdfstring{\protect\CFA : Adding Modern Programming Language Features to C}{Cforall : Adding Modern Programming Language Features to C}}
    194190
    195191\author[1]{Aaron Moss}
    196192\author[1]{Robert Schluntz}
    197 \author[1]{Peter A. Buhr}
     193\author[1]{Peter A. Buhr*}
    198194\authormark{MOSS \textsc{et al}}
    199195
    200 \address[1]{\orgdiv{Cheriton School of Computer Science}, \orgname{University of Waterloo}, \orgaddress{\state{Waterloo, Ontario}, \country{Canada}}}
    201 
    202 \corres{Peter A. Buhr, Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. \email{pabuhr{\char`\@}uwaterloo.ca}}
     196\address[1]{\orgdiv{Cheriton School of Computer Science}, \orgname{University of Waterloo}, \orgaddress{\state{Waterloo, ON}, \country{Canada}}}
     197
     198\corres{*Peter A. Buhr, Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada. \email{pabuhr{\char`\@}uwaterloo.ca}}
    203199
    204200\fundingInfo{Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada}
    205201
    206202\abstract[Summary]{
    207 The C programming language is a foundational technology for modern computing with millions of lines of code implementing everything from hobby projects to commercial operating systems.
    208 This installation base and the programmers producing it represent a massive software engineering investment spanning decades and likely to continue for decades more.
    209 Nevertheless, C, which was first standardized almost 30 years ago, lacks many features that make programming in more modern languages safer and more productive.
    210 The goal of the \CFA project (pronounced ``C for all'') is to create an extension of C that provides modern safety and productivity features while still ensuring strong backward compatibility with C and its programmers.
    211 Prior projects have attempted similar goals but failed to honor the C programming style;
    212 for instance, adding object-oriented or functional programming with garbage collection is a nonstarter for many C developers.
    213 Specifically, \CFA is designed to have an orthogonal feature set based closely on the C programming paradigm, so that \CFA features can be added \emph{incrementally} to existing C code bases, and C programmers can learn \CFA extensions on an as-needed basis, preserving investment in existing code and programmers.
    214 This paper presents a quick tour of \CFA features, showing how their design avoids shortcomings of similar features in C and other C-like languages.
    215 Experimental results are presented to validate several of the new features.
     203The C programming language is a foundational technology for modern computing with millions of lines of code implementing everything from hobby projects to commercial operating-systems.
     204This installation base and the programmers producing it represent a massive software-engineering investment spanning decades and likely to continue for decades more.
     205Nevertheless, C, first standardized almost forty years ago, lacks many features that make programming in more modern languages safer and more productive.
     206
     207The goal of the \CFA project (pronounced ``C-for-all'') is to create an extension of C that provides modern safety and productivity features while still ensuring strong backwards compatibility with C and its programmers.
     208Prior projects have attempted similar goals but failed to honour C programming-style;
     209for instance, adding object-oriented or functional programming with garbage collection is a non-starter for many C developers.
     210Specifically, \CFA is designed to have an orthogonal feature-set based closely on the C programming paradigm, so that \CFA features can be added \emph{incrementally} to existing C code-bases, and C programmers can learn \CFA extensions on an as-needed basis, preserving investment in existing code and programmers.
     211This paper presents a quick tour of \CFA features showing how their design avoids shortcomings of similar features in C and other C-like languages.
     212Finally, experimental results are presented to validate several of the new features.
    216213}%
    217214
    218 \keywords{C, Cforall, generic types, polymorphic functions, tuple types, variadic types}
     215\keywords{generic types, tuple types, variadic types, polymorphic functions, C, Cforall}
    219216
    220217
    221218\begin{document}
    222 %\linenumbers                                            % comment out to turn off line numbering
     219\linenumbers                                            % comment out to turn off line numbering
    223220
    224221\maketitle
    225222
    226223
    227 \vspace*{-10pt}
    228224\section{Introduction}
    229225
    230 The C programming language is a foundational technology for modern computing with millions of lines of code implementing everything from hobby projects to commercial operating systems.
    231 This installation base and the programmers producing it represent a massive software engineering investment spanning decades and likely to continue for decades more.
    232 The TIOBE index~\cite{TIOBE} ranks the top five most \emph{popular} programming languages as Java 15\%, \Textbf{C 12\%}, \Textbf{\CC 5.5\%}, and Python 5\%, \Csharp 4.5\% = 42\%, where the next 50 languages are less than 4\% each with a long tail.
    233 The top three rankings over the past 30 years are as follows.
     226The C programming language is a foundational technology for modern computing with millions of lines of code implementing everything from hobby projects to commercial operating-systems.
     227This installation base and the programmers producing it represent a massive software-engineering investment spanning decades and likely to continue for decades more.
     228The TIOBE~\cite{TIOBE} ranks the top 5 most \emph{popular} programming languages as: Java 15\%, \Textbf{C 12\%}, \Textbf{\CC 5.5\%}, Python 5\%, \Csharp 4.5\% = 42\%, where the next 50 languages are less than 4\% each with a long tail.
     229The top 3 rankings over the past 30 years are:
    234230\begin{center}
    235231\setlength{\tabcolsep}{10pt}
    236 \fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont
    237 \lstDeleteShortInline@%
    238 \begin{tabular}{@{}cccccccc@{}}
    239                 & 2018  & 2013  & 2008  & 2003  & 1998  & 1993  & 1988  \\
    240 Java    & 1             & 2             & 1             & 1             & 18    & --    & --    \\
     232\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     233\begin{tabular}{@{}rccccccc@{}}
     234                & 2018  & 2013  & 2008  & 2003  & 1998  & 1993  & 1988  \\ \hline
     235Java    & 1             & 2             & 1             & 1             & 18    & -             & -             \\
    241236\Textbf{C}& \Textbf{2} & \Textbf{1} & \Textbf{2} & \Textbf{2} & \Textbf{1} & \Textbf{1} & \Textbf{1} \\
    242237\CC             & 3             & 4             & 3             & 3             & 2             & 2             & 5             \\
     
    246241Love it or hate it, C is extremely popular, highly used, and one of the few systems languages.
    247242In many cases, \CC is often used solely as a better C.
    248 Nevertheless, C, which was first standardized almost 30 years ago~\cite{ANSI89:C}, lacks many features that make programming in more modern languages safer and more productive.
    249 
    250 \CFA (pronounced ``C for all'' and written \CFA or Cforall) is an evolutionary extension of the C programming language that adds modern language features to C, while maintaining source and runtime compatibility in the familiar C programming model.
    251 The four key design goals for \CFA~\cite{Bilson03} are as follows:
    252 (1) the behavior of standard C code must remain the same when translated by a \CFA compiler as when translated by a C compiler;
    253 (2) the standard C code must be as fast and as small when translated by a \CFA compiler as when translated by a C compiler;
    254 (3) the \CFA code must be at least as portable as standard C code;
    255 (4) extensions introduced by \CFA must be translated in the most efficient way possible.
    256 These goals ensure that the existing C code bases can be converted into \CFA incrementally with minimal effort, and C programmers can productively generate \CFA code without training beyond the features being used.
    257 \CC is used similarly but has the disadvantages of multiple legacy design choices that cannot be updated and active divergence of the language model from C, requiring significant effort and training to incrementally add \CC to a C-based project.
    258 
    259 All language features discussed in this paper are working, except some advanced exception-handling features.
    260 Not discussed in this paper are the integrated concurrency constructs and user-level threading library~\cite{Delisle18}.
     243Nevertheless, C, first standardized almost forty years ago~\cite{ANSI89:C}, lacks many features that make programming in more modern languages safer and more productive.
     244
     245\CFA (pronounced ``C-for-all'', and written \CFA or Cforall) is an evolutionary extension of the C programming language that adds modern language-features to C, while maintaining source and runtime compatibility in the familiar C programming model.
     246The four key design goals for \CFA~\cite{Bilson03} are:
     247(1) The behaviour of standard C code must remain the same when translated by a \CFA compiler as when translated by a C compiler;
     248(2) Standard C code must be as fast and as small when translated by a \CFA compiler as when translated by a C compiler;
     249(3) \CFA code must be at least as portable as standard C code;
     250(4) Extensions introduced by \CFA must be translated in the most efficient way possible.
     251These goals ensure existing C code-bases can be converted to \CFA incrementally with minimal effort, and C programmers can productively generate \CFA code without training beyond the features being used.
     252\CC is used similarly, but has the disadvantages of multiple legacy design-choices that cannot be updated and active divergence of the language model from C, requiring significant effort and training to incrementally add \CC to a C-based project.
     253
     254All languages features discussed in this paper are working, except some advanced exception-handling features.
     255Not discussed in this paper are the integrated concurrency-constructs and user-level threading-library~\cite{Delisle18}.
    261256\CFA is an \emph{open-source} project implemented as a source-to-source translator from \CFA to the gcc-dialect of C~\cite{GCCExtensions}, allowing it to leverage the portability and code optimizations provided by gcc, meeting goals (1)--(3).
     257Ultimately, a compiler is necessary for advanced features and optimal performance.
    262258% @plg2[9]% cd cfa-cc/src; cloc ArgTweak CodeGen CodeTools Common Concurrency ControlStruct Designators GenPoly InitTweak MakeLibCfa.cc MakeLibCfa.h Parser ResolvExpr SymTab SynTree Tuples driver prelude main.cc
    263259% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    274270% SUM:                           223           8203           8263          46479
    275271% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    276 The \CFA translator is 200+ files and 46\,000+ lines of code written in C/\CC.
    277 A translator versus a compiler makes it easier and faster to generate and debug the C object code rather than the intermediate, assembler, or machine code;
    278 ultimately, a compiler is necessary for advanced features and optimal performance.
    279 % The translator design is based on the \emph{visitor pattern}, allowing multiple passes over the abstract code-tree, which works well for incrementally adding new feature through additional visitor passes.
    280 Two key translator components are expression analysis, determining expression validity and what operations are required for its implementation, and code generation, dealing with multiple forms of overloading, polymorphism, and multiple return values by converting them into the C code for a C compiler that supports none of these features.
    281 Details of these components are available in chapters 2 and 3 in the work of Bilson~\cite{Bilson03} and form the base for the current \CFA translator.
     272The \CFA translator is 200+ files and 46,000+ lines of code written in C/\CC.
     273Starting with a translator versus a compiler makes it easier and faster to generate and debug C object-code rather than intermediate, assembler or machine code.
     274The translator design is based on the \emph{visitor pattern}, allowing multiple passes over the abstract code-tree, which works well for incrementally adding new feature through additional visitor passes.
     275At the heart of the translator is the type resolver, which handles the polymorphic function/type overload-resolution.
    282276% @plg2[8]% cd cfa-cc/src; cloc libcfa
    283277% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    294288% SUM:                           100           1895           2785          11763
    295289% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    296 The \CFA runtime system is 100+ files and 11\,000+ lines of code, written in \CFA.
     290The \CFA runtime system is 100+ files and 11,000+ lines of code, written in \CFA.
    297291Currently, the \CFA runtime is the largest \emph{user} of \CFA providing a vehicle to test the language features and implementation.
    298292% @plg2[6]% cd cfa-cc/src; cloc tests examples benchmark
     
    311305% SUM:                           290          13175           3400          27776
    312306% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    313 % The \CFA tests are 290+ files and 27,000+ lines of code.
    314 % The tests illustrate syntactic and semantic features in \CFA, plus a growing number of runtime benchmarks.
    315 % The tests check for correctness and are used for daily regression testing of 3800+ commits.
    316 
    317 Finally, it is impossible to describe a programming language without usage before definition.
    318 Therefore, syntax and semantics appear before explanations;
    319 hence, patience is necessary until sufficient details are presented and discussed.
    320 Similarly, a detailed comparison with other programming languages is postponed until Section~\ref{s:RelatedWork}.
    321 
    322 
    323 \vspace*{-6pt}
     307The \CFA tests are 290+ files and 27,000+ lines of code.
     308The tests illustrate syntactic and semantic features in \CFA, plus a growing number of runtime benchmarks.
     309The tests check for correctness and are used for daily regression testing of 3800+ commits.
     310
     311Finally, it is impossible to describe a programming language without usages before definitions.
     312Therefore, syntax and semantics appear before explanations, and related work (Section~\ref{s:RelatedWork}) is deferred until \CFA is presented;
     313hence, patience is necessary until details are discussed.
     314
     315
    324316\section{Polymorphic Functions}
    325317
    326 \CFA introduces both ad hoc and parametric polymorphism to C, with a design originally formalized by Ditchfield~\cite{Ditchfield92} and first implemented by Bilson~\cite{Bilson03}.
    327 Shortcomings are identified in the existing approaches to generic and variadic data types in C-like languages and how these shortcomings are avoided in \CFA.
    328 Specifically, the solution is both reusable and type checked, as well as conforming to the design goals of \CFA with ergonomic use of existing C abstractions.
     318\CFA introduces both ad-hoc and parametric polymorphism to C, with a design originally formalized by Ditchfield~\cite{Ditchfield92}, and first implemented by Bilson~\cite{Bilson03}.
     319Shortcomings are identified in existing approaches to generic and variadic data types in C-like languages and how these shortcomings are avoided in \CFA.
     320Specifically, the solution is both reusable and type-checked, as well as conforming to the design goals of \CFA with ergonomic use of existing C abstractions.
    329321The new constructs are empirically compared with C and \CC approaches via performance experiments in Section~\ref{sec:eval}.
    330322
    331323
    332 \vspace*{-6pt}
    333 \subsection{Name overloading}
     324\subsection{Name Overloading}
    334325\label{s:NameOverloading}
    335326
    336327\begin{quote}
    337 ``There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and \emph{naming things}.''---Phil Karlton
     328There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and \emph{naming things} -- Phil Karlton
    338329\end{quote}
    339330\vspace{-9pt}
    340 C already has a limited form of ad hoc polymorphism in its basic arithmetic operators, which apply to a variety of different types using identical syntax.
     331C already has a limited form of ad-hoc polymorphism in its basic arithmetic operators, which apply to a variety of different types using identical syntax.
    341332\CFA extends the built-in operator overloading by allowing users to define overloads for any function, not just operators, and even any variable;
    342333Section~\ref{sec:libraries} includes a number of examples of how this overloading simplifies \CFA programming relative to C.
    343334Code generation for these overloaded functions and variables is implemented by the usual approach of mangling the identifier names to include a representation of their type, while \CFA decides which overload to apply based on the same ``usual arithmetic conversions'' used in C to disambiguate operator overloads.
    344 
    345 \newpage
     335As an example:
    346336\begin{cfa}
    347337int max = 2147483647;                                           $\C[4in]{// (1)}$
     
    349339int max( int a, int b ) { return a < b ? b : a; }  $\C{// (3)}$
    350340double max( double a, double b ) { return a < b ? b : a; }  $\C{// (4)}\CRT$
    351 max( 7, -max );                                         $\C[3in]{// uses (3) and (1), by matching int from constant 7}$
     341max( 7, -max );                                         $\C{// uses (3) and (1), by matching int from constant 7}$
    352342max( max, 3.14 );                                       $\C{// uses (4) and (2), by matching double from constant 3.14}$
    353343max( max, -max );                                       $\C{// ERROR, ambiguous}$
    354 int m = max( max, -max );                       $\C{// uses (3) and (1) twice, by matching return type}\CRT$
     344int m = max( max, -max );                       $\C{// uses (3) and (1) twice, by matching return type}$
    355345\end{cfa}
    356346
     
    358348In some cases, hundreds of names can be reduced to tens, resulting in a significant cognitive reduction.
    359349In the above, the name @max@ has a consistent meaning, and a programmer only needs to remember the single concept: maximum.
    360 To prevent significant ambiguities, \CFA uses the return type in selecting overloads, \eg in the assignment to @m@, the compiler uses @m@'s type to unambiguously select the most appropriate call to function @max@ (as does Ada).
     350To prevent significant ambiguities, \CFA uses the return type in selecting overloads, \eg in the assignment to @m@, the compiler use @m@'s type to unambiguously select the most appropriate call to function @max@ (as does Ada).
    361351As is shown later, there are a number of situations where \CFA takes advantage of available type information to disambiguate, where other programming languages generate ambiguities.
    362352
    363 \Celeven added @_Generic@ expressions (see section~6.5.1.1 of the ISO/IEC 9899~\cite{C11}), which is used with preprocessor macros to provide ad hoc polymorphism;
     353\Celeven added @_Generic@ expressions~\cite[\S~6.5.1.1]{C11}, which is used with preprocessor macros to provide ad-hoc polymorphism;
    364354however, this polymorphism is both functionally and ergonomically inferior to \CFA name overloading.
    365 The macro wrapping the generic expression imposes some limitations, for instance, it cannot implement the example above, because the variables @max@ are ambiguous with the functions @max@.
     355The macro wrapping the generic expression imposes some limitations;
     356\eg, it cannot implement the example above, because the variables @max@ are ambiguous with the functions @max@.
    366357Ergonomic limitations of @_Generic@ include the necessity to put a fixed list of supported types in a single place and manually dispatch to appropriate overloads, as well as possible namespace pollution from the dispatch functions, which must all have distinct names.
    367 \CFA supports @_Generic@ expressions for backward compatibility, but it is an unnecessary mechanism.
     358\CFA supports @_Generic@ expressions for backwards compatibility, but it is an unnecessary mechanism. \TODO{actually implement that}
    368359
    369360% http://fanf.livejournal.com/144696.html
     
    372363
    373364
    374 \vspace*{-10pt}
    375 \subsection{\texorpdfstring{\protect\lstinline{forall} functions}{forall functions}}
     365\subsection{\texorpdfstring{\protect\lstinline{forall} Functions}{forall Functions}}
    376366\label{sec:poly-fns}
    377367
    378 The signature feature of \CFA is parametric-polymorphic functions~\cite{forceone:impl,Cormack90,Duggan96} with functions generalized using a @forall@ clause (giving the language its name).
     368The signature feature of \CFA is parametric-polymorphic functions~\cite{forceone:impl,Cormack90,Duggan96} with functions generalized using a @forall@ clause (giving the language its name):
    379369\begin{cfa}
    380370`forall( otype T )` T identity( T val ) { return val; }
     
    383373This @identity@ function can be applied to any complete \newterm{object type} (or @otype@).
    384374The type variable @T@ is transformed into a set of additional implicit parameters encoding sufficient information about @T@ to create and return a variable of that type.
    385 The \CFA implementation passes the size and alignment of the type represented by an @otype@ parameter, as well as an assignment operator, constructor, copy constructor, and destructor.
    386 If this extra information is not needed, for instance, for a pointer, the type parameter can be declared as a \newterm{data type} (or @dtype@).
    387 
    388 In \CFA, the polymorphic runtime cost is spread over each polymorphic call, because more arguments are passed to polymorphic functions;
    389 the experiments in Section~\ref{sec:eval} show this overhead is similar to \CC virtual function calls.
    390 A design advantage is that, unlike \CC template functions, \CFA polymorphic functions are compatible with C \emph{separate compilation}, preventing compilation and code bloat.
    391 
    392 Since bare polymorphic types provide a restricted set of available operations, \CFA provides a \newterm{type assertion}~\cite[pp.~37-44]{Alphard} mechanism to provide further type information, where type assertions may be variable or function declarations that depend on a polymorphic type variable.
    393 For example, the function @twice@ can be defined using the \CFA syntax for operator overloading.
     375The \CFA implementation passes the size and alignment of the type represented by an @otype@ parameter, as well as an assignment operator, constructor, copy constructor and destructor.
     376If this extra information is not needed, \eg for a pointer, the type parameter can be declared as a \newterm{data type} (or @dtype@).
     377
     378In \CFA, the polymorphic runtime-cost is spread over each polymorphic call, because more arguments are passed to polymorphic functions;
     379the experiments in Section~\ref{sec:eval} show this overhead is similar to \CC virtual-function calls.
     380A design advantage is that, unlike \CC template-functions, \CFA polymorphic-functions are compatible with C \emph{separate compilation}, preventing compilation and code bloat.
     381
     382Since bare polymorphic-types provide a restricted set of available operations, \CFA provides a \newterm{type assertion}~\cite[pp.~37-44]{Alphard} mechanism to provide further type information, where type assertions may be variable or function declarations that depend on a polymorphic type-variable.
     383For example, the function @twice@ can be defined using the \CFA syntax for operator overloading:
    394384\begin{cfa}
    395385forall( otype T `| { T ?+?(T, T); }` ) T twice( T x ) { return x `+` x; }  $\C{// ? denotes operands}$
    396386int val = twice( twice( 3.7 ) );  $\C{// val == 14}$
    397387\end{cfa}
    398 This works for any type @T@ with a matching addition operator.
    399 The polymorphism is achieved by creating a wrapper function for calling @+@ with the @T@ bound to @double@ and then passing this function to the first call of @twice@.
    400 There is now the option of using the same @twice@ and converting the result into @int@ on assignment or creating another @twice@ with the type parameter @T@ bound to @int@ because \CFA uses the return type~\cite{Cormack81,Baker82,Ada} in its type analysis.
    401 The first approach has a late conversion from @double@ to @int@ on the final assignment, whereas the second has an early conversion to @int@.
    402 \CFA minimizes the number of conversions and their potential to lose information;
    403 hence, it selects the first approach, which corresponds with C programmer intuition.
     388which works for any type @T@ with a matching addition operator.
     389The polymorphism is achieved by creating a wrapper function for calling @+@ with @T@ bound to @double@, then passing this function to the first call of @twice@.
     390There is now the option of using the same @twice@ and converting the result to @int@ on assignment, or creating another @twice@ with type parameter @T@ bound to @int@ because \CFA uses the return type~\cite{Cormack81,Baker82,Ada} in its type analysis.
     391The first approach has a late conversion from @double@ to @int@ on the final assignment, while the second has an early conversion to @int@.
     392\CFA minimizes the number of conversions and their potential to lose information, so it selects the first approach, which corresponds with C-programmer intuition.
    404393
    405394Crucial to the design of a new programming language are the libraries to access thousands of external software features.
    406 Like \CC, \CFA inherits a massive compatible library base, where other programming languages must rewrite or provide fragile interlanguage communication with C.
    407 A simple example is leveraging the existing type-unsafe (@void *@) C @bsearch@ to binary search a sorted float array.
     395Like \CC, \CFA inherits a massive compatible library-base, where other programming languages must rewrite or provide fragile inter-language communication with C.
     396A simple example is leveraging the existing type-unsafe (@void *@) C @bsearch@ to binary search a sorted float array:
    408397\begin{cfa}
    409398void * bsearch( const void * key, const void * base, size_t nmemb, size_t size,
     
    415404double * val = (double *)bsearch( &key, vals, 10, sizeof(vals[0]), comp ); $\C{// search sorted array}$
    416405\end{cfa}
    417 This can be augmented simply with generalized, type-safe, \CFA-overloaded wrappers.
     406which can be augmented simply with generalized, type-safe, \CFA-overloaded wrappers:
    418407\begin{cfa}
    419408forall( otype T | { int ?<?( T, T ); } ) T * bsearch( T key, const T * arr, size_t size ) {
     
    429418\end{cfa}
    430419The nested function @comp@ provides the hidden interface from typed \CFA to untyped (@void *@) C, plus the cast of the result.
    431 % FIX
    432 Providing a hidden @comp@ function in \CC is awkward as lambdas do not use C calling conventions and template declarations cannot appear in block scope.
    433 In addition, an alternate kind of return is made available: position versus pointer to found element.
    434 \CC's type system cannot disambiguate between the two versions of @bsearch@ because it does not use the return type in overload resolution, nor can \CC separately compile a template @bsearch@.
     420Providing a hidden @comp@ function in \CC is awkward as lambdas do not use C calling-conventions and template declarations cannot appear at block scope.
     421As well, an alternate kind of return is made available: position versus pointer to found element.
     422\CC's type-system cannot disambiguate between the two versions of @bsearch@ because it does not use the return type in overload resolution, nor can \CC separately compile a template @bsearch@.
    435423
    436424\CFA has replacement libraries condensing hundreds of existing C functions into tens of \CFA overloaded functions, all without rewriting the actual computations (see Section~\ref{sec:libraries}).
     
    442430\end{cfa}
    443431
    444 Call site inferencing and nested functions provide a localized form of inheritance.
     432Call-site inferencing and nested functions provide a localized form of inheritance.
    445433For example, the \CFA @qsort@ only sorts in ascending order using @<@.
    446 However, it is trivial to locally change this behavior.
     434However, it is trivial to locally change this behaviour:
    447435\begin{cfa}
    448436forall( otype T | { int ?<?( T, T ); } ) void qsort( const T * arr, size_t size ) { /* use C qsort */ }
    449437int main() {
    450         int ?<?( double x, double y ) { return x `>` y; } $\C{// locally override behavior}$
     438        int ?<?( double x, double y ) { return x `>` y; } $\C{// locally override behaviour}$
    451439        qsort( vals, 10 );                                                      $\C{// descending sort}$
    452440}
    453441\end{cfa}
    454442The local version of @?<?@ performs @?>?@ overriding the built-in @?<?@ so it is passed to @qsort@.
    455 Therefore, programmers can easily form local environments, adding and modifying appropriate functions, to maximize the reuse of other existing functions and types.
    456 
    457 To reduce duplication, it is possible to distribute a group of @forall@ (and storage-class qualifiers) over functions/types, such that each block declaration is prefixed by the group (see the example in Appendix~\ref{s:CforallStack}).
     443Hence, programmers can easily form local environments, adding and modifying appropriate functions, to maximize reuse of other existing functions and types.
     444
     445To reduce duplication, it is possible to distribute a group of @forall@ (and storage-class qualifiers) over functions/types, so each block declaration is prefixed by the group (see example in Appendix~\ref{s:CforallStack}).
    458446\begin{cfa}
    459447forall( otype `T` ) {                                                   $\C{// distribution block, add forall qualifier to declarations}$
     
    466454
    467455
     456\vspace*{-2pt}
    468457\subsection{Traits}
    469458
    470 \CFA provides \newterm{traits} to name a group of type assertions, where the trait name allows specifying the same set of assertions in multiple locations, preventing repetition mistakes at each function declaration.
     459\CFA provides \newterm{traits} to name a group of type assertions, where the trait name allows specifying the same set of assertions in multiple locations, preventing repetition mistakes at each function declaration:
     460
    471461\begin{cquote}
    472462\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    495485\end{cquote}
    496486
    497 Note that the @sumable@ trait does not include a copy constructor needed for the right side of @?+=?@ and return;
    498 it is provided by @otype@, which is syntactic sugar for the following trait.
     487Note, the @sumable@ trait does not include a copy constructor needed for the right side of @?+=?@ and return;
     488it is provided by @otype@, which is syntactic sugar for the following trait:
    499489\begin{cfa}
    500490trait otype( dtype T | sized(T) ) {  // sized is a pseudo-trait for types with known size and alignment
     
    505495};
    506496\end{cfa}
    507 Given the information provided for an @otype@, variables of polymorphic type can be treated as if they were a complete type: stack allocatable, default or copy initialized, assigned, and deleted.
    508 
    509 In summation, the \CFA type system uses \newterm{nominal typing} for concrete types, matching with the C type system, and \newterm{structural typing} for polymorphic types.
     497Given the information provided for an @otype@, variables of polymorphic type can be treated as if they were a complete type: stack-allocatable, default or copy-initialized, assigned, and deleted.
     498
     499In summation, the \CFA type-system uses \newterm{nominal typing} for concrete types, matching with the C type-system, and \newterm{structural typing} for polymorphic types.
    510500Hence, trait names play no part in type equivalence;
    511501the names are simply macros for a list of polymorphic assertions, which are expanded at usage sites.
    512 Nevertheless, trait names form a logical subtype hierarchy with @dtype@ at the top, where traits often contain overlapping assertions, \eg operator @+@.
    513 Traits are used like interfaces in Java or abstract base classes in \CC, but without the nominal inheritance relationships.
    514 Instead, each polymorphic function (or generic type) defines the structural type needed for its execution (polymorphic type key), and this key is fulfilled at each call site from the lexical environment, which is similar to the Go~\cite{Go} interfaces.
    515 Hence, new lexical scopes and nested functions are used extensively to create local subtypes, as in the @qsort@ example, without having to manage a nominal inheritance hierarchy.
     502Nevertheless, trait names form a logical subtype-hierarchy with @dtype@ at the top, where traits often contain overlapping assertions, \eg operator @+@.
     503Traits are used like interfaces in Java or abstract base-classes in \CC, but without the nominal inheritance-relationships.
     504Instead, each polymorphic function (or generic type) defines the structural type needed for its execution (polymorphic type-key), and this key is fulfilled at each call site from the lexical environment, which is similar to Go~\cite{Go} interfaces.
     505Hence, new lexical scopes and nested functions are used extensively to create local subtypes, as in the @qsort@ example, without having to manage a nominal-inheritance hierarchy.
    516506% (Nominal inheritance can be approximated with traits using marker variables or functions, as is done in Go.)
    517507
     
    544534
    545535A significant shortcoming of standard C is the lack of reusable type-safe abstractions for generic data structures and algorithms.
    546 Broadly speaking, there are three approaches to implement abstract data structures in C.
    547 One approach is to write bespoke data structures for each context in which they are needed.
    548 While this approach is flexible and supports integration with the C type checker and tooling, it is also tedious and error prone, especially for more complex data structures.
    549 A second approach is to use @void *@-based polymorphism, \eg the C standard library functions @bsearch@ and @qsort@, which allow for the reuse of code with common functionality.
    550 However, basing all polymorphism on @void *@ eliminates the type checker's ability to ensure that argument types are properly matched, often requiring a number of extra function parameters, pointer indirection, and dynamic allocation that is otherwise not needed.
    551 A third approach to generic code is to use preprocessor macros, which does allow the generated code to be both generic and type checked, but errors may be difficult to interpret.
     536Broadly speaking, there are three approaches to implement abstract data-structures in C.
     537One approach is to write bespoke data-structures for each context in which they are needed.
     538While this approach is flexible and supports integration with the C type-checker and tooling, it is also tedious and error-prone, especially for more complex data structures.
     539A second approach is to use @void *@-based polymorphism, \eg the C standard-library functions @bsearch@ and @qsort@, which allow reuse of code with common functionality.
     540However, basing all polymorphism on @void *@ eliminates the type-checker's ability to ensure that argument types are properly matched, often requiring a number of extra function parameters, pointer indirection, and dynamic allocation that is not otherwise needed.
     541A third approach to generic code is to use preprocessor macros, which does allow the generated code to be both generic and type-checked, but errors may be difficult to interpret.
    552542Furthermore, writing and using preprocessor macros is unnatural and inflexible.
    553543
    554 \CC, Java, and other languages use \newterm{generic types} to produce type-safe abstract data types.
    555 \CFA generic types integrate efficiently and naturally with the existing polymorphic functions, while retaining backward compatibility with C and providing separate compilation.
     544\CC, Java, and other languages use \newterm{generic types} to produce type-safe abstract data-types.
     545\CFA generic types integrate efficiently and naturally with the existing polymorphic functions, while retaining backwards compatibility with C and providing separate compilation.
    556546However, for known concrete parameters, the generic-type definition can be inlined, like \CC templates.
    557547
    558 A generic type can be declared by placing a @forall@ specifier on a @struct@ or @union@ declaration and instantiated using a parenthesized list of types after the type name.
     548A generic type can be declared by placing a @forall@ specifier on a @struct@ or @union@ declaration, and instantiated using a parenthesized list of types after the type name:
    559549\begin{cquote}
    560550\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    584574
    585575\CFA classifies generic types as either \newterm{concrete} or \newterm{dynamic}.
    586 Concrete types have a fixed memory layout regardless of type parameters, whereas dynamic types vary in memory layout depending on their type parameters.
     576Concrete types have a fixed memory layout regardless of type parameters, while dynamic types vary in memory layout depending on their type parameters.
    587577A \newterm{dtype-static} type has polymorphic parameters but is still concrete.
    588578Polymorphic pointers are an example of dtype-static types;
    589 given some type variable @T@, @T@ is a polymorphic type, as is @T *@, but @T *@ has a fixed size and can, therefore, be represented by @void *@ in code generation.
    590 
    591 \CFA generic types also allow checked argument constraints.
    592 For example, the following declaration of a sorted set type ensures the set key supports equality and relational comparison.
     579given some type variable @T@, @T@ is a polymorphic type, as is @T *@, but @T *@ has a fixed size and can therefore be represented by @void *@ in code generation.
     580
     581\CFA generic types also allow checked argument-constraints.
     582For example, the following declaration of a sorted set-type ensures the set key supports equality and relational comparison:
    593583\begin{cfa}
    594584forall( otype Key | { _Bool ?==?(Key, Key); _Bool ?<?(Key, Key); } ) struct sorted_set;
     
    596586
    597587
    598 \subsection{Concrete generic types}
    599 
    600 The \CFA translator template expands concrete generic types into new structure types, affording maximal inlining.
    601 To enable interoperation among equivalent instantiations of a generic type, the translator saves the set of instantiations currently in scope and reuses the generated structure declarations where appropriate.
    602 A function declaration that accepts or returns a concrete generic type produces a declaration for the instantiated structure in the same scope, which all callers may reuse.
    603 For example, the concrete instantiation for @pair( const char *, int )@ is
     588\subsection{Concrete Generic-Types}
     589
     590The \CFA translator template-expands concrete generic-types into new structure types, affording maximal inlining.
     591To enable inter-operation among equivalent instantiations of a generic type, the translator saves the set of instantiations currently in scope and reuses the generated structure declarations where appropriate.
     592A function declaration that accepts or returns a concrete generic-type produces a declaration for the instantiated structure in the same scope, which all callers may reuse.
     593For example, the concrete instantiation for @pair( const char *, int )@ is:
    604594\begin{cfa}
    605595struct _pair_conc0 {
     
    608598\end{cfa}
    609599
    610 A concrete generic type with dtype-static parameters is also expanded to a structure type, but this type is used for all matching instantiations.
    611 In the above example, the @pair( F *, T * )@ parameter to @value@ is such a type; its expansion is below, and it is used as the type of the variables @q@ and @r@ as well, with casts for member access where appropriate.
     600A concrete generic-type with dtype-static parameters is also expanded to a structure type, but this type is used for all matching instantiations.
     601In the above example, the @pair( F *, T * )@ parameter to @value@ is such a type; its expansion is below and it is used as the type of the variables @q@ and @r@ as well, with casts for member access where appropriate:
    612602\begin{cfa}
    613603struct _pair_conc1 {
     
    617607
    618608
    619 \subsection{Dynamic generic types}
    620 
    621 Though \CFA implements concrete generic types efficiently, it also has a fully general system for dynamic generic types.
    622 As mentioned in Section~\ref{sec:poly-fns}, @otype@ function parameters (in fact, all @sized@ polymorphic parameters) come with implicit size and alignment parameters provided by the caller.
    623 Dynamic generic types also have an \newterm{offset array} containing structure-member offsets.
    624 A dynamic generic @union@ needs no such offset array, as all members are at offset 0, but size and alignment are still necessary.
    625 Access to members of a dynamic structure is provided at runtime via base displacement addressing
    626 % FIX
    627 using the structure pointer and the member offset (similar to the @offsetof@ macro), moving a compile-time offset calculation to runtime.
     609\subsection{Dynamic Generic-Types}
     610
     611Though \CFA implements concrete generic-types efficiently, it also has a fully general system for dynamic generic types.
     612As mentioned in Section~\ref{sec:poly-fns}, @otype@ function parameters (in fact all @sized@ polymorphic parameters) come with implicit size and alignment parameters provided by the caller.
     613Dynamic generic-types also have an \newterm{offset array} containing structure-member offsets.
     614A dynamic generic-@union@ needs no such offset array, as all members are at offset 0, but size and alignment are still necessary.
     615Access to members of a dynamic structure is provided at runtime via base-displacement addressing with the structure pointer and the member offset (similar to the @offsetof@ macro), moving a compile-time offset calculation to runtime.
    628616
    629617The offset arrays are statically generated where possible.
    630 If a dynamic generic type is declared to be passed or returned by value from a polymorphic function, the translator can safely assume that the generic type is complete (\ie has a known layout) at any call site, and the offset array is passed from the caller;
     618If a dynamic generic-type is declared to be passed or returned by value from a polymorphic function, the translator can safely assume the generic type is complete (\ie has a known layout) at any call-site, and the offset array is passed from the caller;
    631619if the generic type is concrete at the call site, the elements of this offset array can even be statically generated using the C @offsetof@ macro.
    632 As an example, the body of the second @value@ function is implemented as
     620As an example, the body of the second @value@ function is implemented as:
    633621\begin{cfa}
    634622_assign_T( _retval, p + _offsetof_pair[1] ); $\C{// return *p.second}$
    635623\end{cfa}
    636 \newpage
    637 \noindent
    638 Here, @_assign_T@ is passed in as an implicit parameter from @otype T@, and takes two @T *@ (@void *@ in the generated code), a destination and a source, and @_retval@ is the pointer to a caller-allocated buffer for the return value, the usual \CFA method to handle dynamically sized return types.
    639 @_offsetof_pair@ is the offset array passed into @value@;
    640 this array is generated at the call site as
     624@_assign_T@ is passed in as an implicit parameter from @otype T@, and takes two @T *@ (@void *@ in the generated code), a destination and a source; @_retval@ is the pointer to a caller-allocated buffer for the return value, the usual \CFA method to handle dynamically-sized return types.
     625@_offsetof_pair@ is the offset array passed into @value@; this array is generated at the call site as:
    641626\begin{cfa}
    642627size_t _offsetof_pair[] = { offsetof( _pair_conc0, first ), offsetof( _pair_conc0, second ) }
    643628\end{cfa}
    644629
    645 In some cases, the offset arrays cannot be statically generated.
    646 For instance, modularity is generally provided in C by including an opaque forward declaration of a structure and associated accessor and mutator functions in a header file, with the actual implementations in a separately compiled @.c@ file.
    647 \CFA supports this pattern for generic types, but the caller does not know the actual layout or size of the dynamic generic type and only holds it by a pointer.
     630In some cases the offset arrays cannot be statically generated.
     631For instance, modularity is generally provided in C by including an opaque forward-declaration of a structure and associated accessor and mutator functions in a header file, with the actual implementations in a separately-compiled @.c@ file.
     632\CFA supports this pattern for generic types, but the caller does not know the actual layout or size of the dynamic generic-type, and only holds it by a pointer.
    648633The \CFA translator automatically generates \newterm{layout functions} for cases where the size, alignment, and offset array of a generic struct cannot be passed into a function from that function's caller.
    649634These layout functions take as arguments pointers to size and alignment variables and a caller-allocated array of member offsets, as well as the size and alignment of all @sized@ parameters to the generic structure (un@sized@ parameters are forbidden from being used in a context that affects layout).
     
    655640Whether a type is concrete, dtype-static, or dynamic is decided solely on the @forall@'s type parameters.
    656641This design allows opaque forward declarations of generic types, \eg @forall(otype T)@ @struct Box@ -- like in C, all uses of @Box(T)@ can be separately compiled, and callers from other translation units know the proper calling conventions to use.
    657 If the definition of a structure type is included in deciding whether a generic type is dynamic or concrete, some further types may be recognized as dtype-static (\eg @forall(otype T)@ @struct unique_ptr { T * p }@ does not depend on @T@ for its layout, but the existence of an @otype@ parameter means that it \emph{could}.);
    658 however, preserving separate compilation (and the associated C compatibility) in the existing design is judged to be an appropriate trade-off.
     642If the definition of a structure type is included in deciding whether a generic type is dynamic or concrete, some further types may be recognized as dtype-static (\eg @forall(otype T)@ @struct unique_ptr { T * p }@ does not depend on @T@ for its layout, but the existence of an @otype@ parameter means that it \emph{could}.), but preserving separate compilation (and the associated C compatibility) in the existing design is judged to be an appropriate trade-off.
    659643
    660644
     
    669653}
    670654\end{cfa}
    671 Since @pair( T *, T * )@ is a concrete type, there are no implicit parameters passed to @lexcmp@;
    672 hence, the generated code is identical to a function written in standard C using @void *@, yet the \CFA version is type checked to ensure members of both pairs and arguments to the comparison function match in type.
    673 
    674 Another useful pattern enabled by reused dtype-static type instantiations is zero-cost \newterm{tag structures}.
    675 Sometimes, information is only used for type checking and can be omitted at runtime.
     655Since @pair( T *, T * )@ is a concrete type, there are no implicit parameters passed to @lexcmp@, so the generated code is identical to a function written in standard C using @void *@, yet the \CFA version is type-checked to ensure the members of both pairs and the arguments to the comparison function match in type.
     656
     657Another useful pattern enabled by reused dtype-static type instantiations is zero-cost \newterm{tag-structures}.
     658Sometimes information is only used for type-checking and can be omitted at runtime, \eg:
    676659\begin{cquote}
    677660\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    692675                                                        half_marathon;
    693676scalar(litres) two_pools = pool + pool;
    694 `marathon + pool;` // ERROR, mismatched types
     677`marathon + pool;`      // ERROR, mismatched types
    695678\end{cfa}
    696679\end{tabular}
    697680\lstMakeShortInline@%
    698681\end{cquote}
    699 Here, @scalar@ is a dtype-static type;
    700 hence, all uses have a single structure definition, containing @unsigned long@, and can share the same implementations of common functions like @?+?@.
     682@scalar@ is a dtype-static type, so all uses have a single structure definition, containing @unsigned long@, and can share the same implementations of common functions like @?+?@.
    701683These implementations may even be separately compiled, unlike \CC template functions.
    702 However, the \CFA type checker ensures matching types are used by all calls to @?+?@, preventing nonsensical computations like adding a length to a volume.
     684However, the \CFA type-checker ensures matching types are used by all calls to @?+?@, preventing nonsensical computations like adding a length to a volume.
    703685
    704686
     
    706688\label{sec:tuples}
    707689
    708 In many languages, functions can return, at most, one value;
     690In many languages, functions can return at most one value;
    709691however, many operations have multiple outcomes, some exceptional.
    710692Consider C's @div@ and @remquo@ functions, which return the quotient and remainder for a division of integer and float values, respectively.
     
    717699double r = remquo( 13.5, 5.2, &q );                     $\C{// return remainder, alias quotient}$
    718700\end{cfa}
    719 Here, @div@ aggregates the quotient/remainder in a structure, whereas @remquo@ aliases a parameter to an argument.
     701@div@ aggregates the quotient/remainder in a structure, while @remquo@ aliases a parameter to an argument.
    720702Both approaches are awkward.
    721 % FIX
    722 Alternatively, a programming language can directly support returning multiple values, \eg \CFA provides the following.
     703Alternatively, a programming language can directly support returning multiple values, \eg in \CFA:
    723704\begin{cfa}
    724705[ int, int ] div( int num, int den );           $\C{// return two integers}$
     
    731712This approach is straightforward to understand and use;
    732713therefore, why do few programming languages support this obvious feature or provide it awkwardly?
    733 To answer, there are complex consequences that cascade through multiple aspects of the language, especially the type system.
    734 This section shows these consequences and how \CFA handles them.
     714To answer, there are complex consequences that cascade through multiple aspects of the language, especially the type-system.
     715This section show these consequences and how \CFA handles them.
    735716
    736717
    737718\subsection{Tuple Expressions}
    738719
    739 The addition of multiple-return-value functions (MRVFs) is \emph{useless} without a syntax for accepting multiple values at the call site.
     720The addition of multiple-return-value functions (MRVF) are \emph{useless} without a syntax for accepting multiple values at the call-site.
    740721The simplest mechanism for capturing the return values is variable assignment, allowing the values to be retrieved directly.
    741722As such, \CFA allows assigning multiple values from a function into multiple variables, using a square-bracketed list of lvalue expressions (as above), called a \newterm{tuple}.
    742723
    743 However, functions also use \newterm{composition} (nested calls), with the direct consequence that MRVFs must also support composition to be orthogonal with single-returning-value functions (SRVFs), \eg, \CFA provides the following.
     724However, functions also use \newterm{composition} (nested calls), with the direct consequence that MRVFs must also support composition to be orthogonal with single-returning-value functions (SRVF), \eg:
    744725\begin{cfa}
    745726printf( "%d %d\n", div( 13, 5 ) );                      $\C{// return values seperated into arguments}$
    746727\end{cfa}
    747728Here, the values returned by @div@ are composed with the call to @printf@ by flattening the tuple into separate arguments.
    748 However, the \CFA type-system must support significantly more complex composition.
     729However, the \CFA type-system must support significantly more complex composition:
    749730\begin{cfa}
    750731[ int, int ] foo$\(_1\)$( int );                        $\C{// overloaded foo functions}$
     
    753734`bar`( foo( 3 ), foo( 3 ) );
    754735\end{cfa}
    755 The type resolver only has the tuple return types to resolve the call to @bar@ as the @foo@ parameters are identical, which involves unifying the possible @foo@ functions with @bar@'s parameter list.
    756 No combination of @foo@s is an exact match with @bar@'s parameters;
    757 thus, the resolver applies C conversions.
    758 % FIX
     736The type-resolver only has the tuple return-types to resolve the call to @bar@ as the @foo@ parameters are identical, which involves unifying the possible @foo@ functions with @bar@'s parameter list.
     737No combination of @foo@s are an exact match with @bar@'s parameters, so the resolver applies C conversions.
    759738The minimal cost is @bar( foo@$_1$@( 3 ), foo@$_2$@( 3 ) )@, giving (@int@, {\color{ForestGreen}@int@}, @double@) to (@int@, {\color{ForestGreen}@double@}, @double@) with one {\color{ForestGreen}safe} (widening) conversion from @int@ to @double@ versus ({\color{red}@double@}, {\color{ForestGreen}@int@}, {\color{ForestGreen}@int@}) to ({\color{red}@int@}, {\color{ForestGreen}@double@}, {\color{ForestGreen}@double@}) with one {\color{red}unsafe} (narrowing) conversion from @double@ to @int@ and two safe conversions.
    760739
    761740
    762 \subsection{Tuple variables}
     741\subsection{Tuple Variables}
    763742
    764743An important observation from function composition is that new variable names are not required to initialize parameters from an MRVF.
    765 \CFA also allows declaration of tuple variables that can be initialized from an MRVF, since it can be awkward to declare multiple variables of different types.
    766 \newpage
     744\CFA also allows declaration of tuple variables that can be initialized from an MRVF, since it can be awkward to declare multiple variables of different types, \eg:
    767745\begin{cfa}
    768746[ int, int ] qr = div( 13, 5 );                         $\C{// tuple-variable declaration and initialization}$
    769747[ double, double ] qr = div( 13.5, 5.2 );
    770748\end{cfa}
    771 Here, the tuple variable name serves the same purpose as the parameter name(s).
     749where the tuple variable-name serves the same purpose as the parameter name(s).
    772750Tuple variables can be composed of any types, except for array types, since array sizes are generally unknown in C.
    773751
    774 One way to access the tuple variable components is with assignment or composition.
     752One way to access the tuple-variable components is with assignment or composition:
    775753\begin{cfa}
    776754[ q, r ] = qr;                                                          $\C{// access tuple-variable components}$
    777755printf( "%d %d\n", qr );
    778756\end{cfa}
    779 \CFA also supports \newterm{tuple indexing} to access single components of a tuple expression.
     757\CFA also supports \newterm{tuple indexing} to access single components of a tuple expression:
    780758\begin{cfa}
    781759[int, int] * p = &qr;                                           $\C{// tuple pointer}$
     
    788766
    789767
    790 \subsection{Flattening and restructuring}
     768\subsection{Flattening and Restructuring}
    791769
    792770In function call contexts, tuples support implicit flattening and restructuring conversions.
    793771Tuple flattening recursively expands a tuple into the list of its basic components.
    794 Tuple structuring packages a list of expressions into a value of tuple type.
     772Tuple structuring packages a list of expressions into a value of tuple type, \eg:
    795773\begin{cfa}
    796774int f( int, int );
     
    803781h( x, y );                                                                      $\C{// flatten and structure}$
    804782\end{cfa}
    805 In the call to @f@, @x@ is implicitly flattened so the components of @x@ are passed as two arguments.
     783In the call to @f@, @x@ is implicitly flattened so the components of @x@ are passed as the two arguments.
    806784In the call to @g@, the values @y@ and @10@ are structured into a single argument of type @[int, int]@ to match the parameter type of @g@.
    807785Finally, in the call to @h@, @x@ is flattened to yield an argument list of length 3, of which the first component of @x@ is passed as the first parameter of @h@, and the second component of @x@ and @y@ are structured into the second argument of type @[int, int]@.
    808 The flexible structure of tuples permits a simple and expressive function call syntax to work seamlessly with both SRVFs and MRVFs with any number of arguments of arbitrarily complex structure.
    809 
    810 
    811 \subsection{Tuple assignment}
    812 
    813 \enlargethispage{-10pt}
     786The flexible structure of tuples permits a simple and expressive function call syntax to work seamlessly with both SRVF and MRVF, and with any number of arguments of arbitrarily complex structure.
     787
     788
     789\subsection{Tuple Assignment}
     790
    814791An assignment where the left side is a tuple type is called \newterm{tuple assignment}.
    815 There are two kinds of tuple assignment depending on whether the right side of the assignment operator has a tuple type or a nontuple type, called \newterm{multiple} and \newterm{mass assignment}, respectively.
     792There are two kinds of tuple assignment depending on whether the right side of the assignment operator has a tuple type or a non-tuple type, called \newterm{multiple} and \newterm{mass assignment}, respectively.
    816793\begin{cfa}
    817794int x = 10;
     
    823800[y, x] = 3.14;                                                          $\C{// mass assignment}$
    824801\end{cfa}
    825 Both kinds of tuple assignment have parallel semantics, so that each value on the left and right sides is evaluated before any assignments occur.
     802Both kinds of tuple assignment have parallel semantics, so that each value on the left and right side is evaluated before any assignments occur.
    826803As a result, it is possible to swap the values in two variables without explicitly creating any temporary variables or calling a function, \eg, @[x, y] = [y, x]@.
    827804This semantics means mass assignment differs from C cascading assignment (\eg @a = b = c@) in that conversions are applied in each individual assignment, which prevents data loss from the chain of conversions that can happen during a cascading assignment.
    828 For example, @[y, x] = 3.14@ performs the assignments @y = 3.14@ and @x = 3.14@, yielding @y == 3.14@ and @x == 3@, whereas C cascading assignment @y = x = 3.14@ performs the assignments @x = 3.14@ and @y = x@, yielding @3@ in @y@ and @x@.
     805For example, @[y, x] = 3.14@ performs the assignments @y = 3.14@ and @x = 3.14@, yielding @y == 3.14@ and @x == 3@;
     806whereas, C cascading assignment @y = x = 3.14@ performs the assignments @x = 3.14@ and @y = x@, yielding @3@ in @y@ and @x@.
    829807Finally, tuple assignment is an expression where the result type is the type of the left-hand side of the assignment, just like all other assignment expressions in C.
    830 This example shows mass, multiple, and cascading assignment used in one expression.
     808This example shows mass, multiple, and cascading assignment used in one expression:
    831809\begin{cfa}
    832810[void] f( [int, int] );
     
    835813
    836814
    837 \subsection{Member access}
    838 
    839 It is also possible to access multiple members from a single expression using a \newterm{member access}.
    840 The result is a single tuple-valued expression whose type is the tuple of the types of the members.
     815\subsection{Member Access}
     816
     817It is also possible to access multiple members from a single expression using a \newterm{member-access}.
     818The result is a single tuple-valued expression whose type is the tuple of the types of the members, \eg:
    841819\begin{cfa}
    842820struct S { int x; double y; char * z; } s;
     
    852830[int, int, int] y = x.[2, 0, 2];                        $\C{// duplicate: [y.0, y.1, y.2] = [x.2, x.0.x.2]}$
    853831\end{cfa}
    854 It is also possible for a member access to contain other member accesses.
     832It is also possible for a member access to contain other member accesses, \eg:
    855833\begin{cfa}
    856834struct A { double i; int j; };
     
    919897
    920898Tuples also integrate with \CFA polymorphism as a kind of generic type.
    921 Due to the implicit flattening and structuring conversions involved in argument passing, @otype@ and @dtype@ parameters are restricted to matching only with nontuple types.
     899Due to the implicit flattening and structuring conversions involved in argument passing, @otype@ and @dtype@ parameters are restricted to matching only with non-tuple types, \eg:
    922900\begin{cfa}
    923901forall( otype T, dtype U ) void f( T x, U * y );
    924902f( [5, "hello"] );
    925903\end{cfa}
    926 Here, @[5, "hello"]@ is flattened, giving argument list @5, "hello"@, and @T@ binds to @int@ and @U@ binds to @const char@.
     904where @[5, "hello"]@ is flattened, giving argument list @5, "hello"@, and @T@ binds to @int@ and @U@ binds to @const char@.
    927905Tuples, however, may contain polymorphic components.
    928906For example, a plus operator can be written to sum two triples.
     
    942920g( 5, 10.21 );
    943921\end{cfa}
    944 \newpage
    945922Hence, function parameter and return lists are flattened for the purposes of type unification allowing the example to pass expression resolution.
    946923This relaxation is possible by extending the thunk scheme described by Bilson~\cite{Bilson03}.
     
    953930
    954931
    955 \subsection{Variadic tuples}
     932\subsection{Variadic Tuples}
    956933\label{sec:variadic-tuples}
    957934
    958 To define variadic functions, \CFA adds a new kind of type parameter, \ie @ttype@ (tuple type).
    959 Matching against a @ttype@ parameter consumes all the remaining argument components and packages them into a tuple, binding to the resulting tuple of types.
    960 In a given parameter list, there must be, at most, one @ttype@ parameter that occurs last, which matches normal variadic semantics, with a strong feeling of similarity to \CCeleven variadic templates.
     935To define variadic functions, \CFA adds a new kind of type parameter, @ttype@ (tuple type).
     936Matching against a @ttype@ parameter consumes all remaining argument components and packages them into a tuple, binding to the resulting tuple of types.
     937In a given parameter list, there must be at most one @ttype@ parameter that occurs last, which matches normal variadic semantics, with a strong feeling of similarity to \CCeleven variadic templates.
    961938As such, @ttype@ variables are also called \newterm{argument packs}.
    962939
     
    964941Since nothing is known about a parameter pack by default, assertion parameters are key to doing anything meaningful.
    965942Unlike variadic templates, @ttype@ polymorphic functions can be separately compiled.
    966 For example, the following is a generalized @sum@ function.
     943For example, a generalized @sum@ function:
    967944\begin{cfa}
    968945int sum$\(_0\)$() { return 0; }
     
    973950\end{cfa}
    974951Since @sum@\(_0\) does not accept any arguments, it is not a valid candidate function for the call @sum(10, 20, 30)@.
    975 In order to call @sum@\(_1\), @10@ is matched with @x@, and the argument resolution moves on to the argument pack @rest@, which consumes the remainder of the argument list, and @Params@ is bound to @[20, 30]@.
     952In order to call @sum@\(_1\), @10@ is matched with @x@, and the argument resolution moves on to the argument pack @rest@, which consumes the remainder of the argument list and @Params@ is bound to @[20, 30]@.
    976953The process continues until @Params@ is bound to @[]@, requiring an assertion @int sum()@, which matches @sum@\(_0\) and terminates the recursion.
    977954Effectively, this algorithm traces as @sum(10, 20, 30)@ $\rightarrow$ @10 + sum(20, 30)@ $\rightarrow$ @10 + (20 + sum(30))@ $\rightarrow$ @10 + (20 + (30 + sum()))@ $\rightarrow$ @10 + (20 + (30 + 0))@.
    978955
    979 It is reasonable to take the @sum@ function a step further to enforce a minimum number of arguments.
     956It is reasonable to take the @sum@ function a step further to enforce a minimum number of arguments:
    980957\begin{cfa}
    981958int sum( int x, int y ) { return x + y; }
     
    984961}
    985962\end{cfa}
    986 One more step permits the summation of any sumable type with all arguments of the same type.
     963One more step permits the summation of any sumable type with all arguments of the same type:
    987964\begin{cfa}
    988965trait sumable( otype T ) {
     
    1013990This example showcases a variadic-template-like decomposition of the provided argument list.
    1014991The individual @print@ functions allow printing a single element of a type.
    1015 The polymorphic @print@ allows printing any list of types, where each individual type has a @print@ function.
     992The polymorphic @print@ allows printing any list of types, where as each individual type has a @print@ function.
    1016993The individual print functions can be used to build up more complicated @print@ functions, such as @S@, which cannot be done with @printf@ in C.
    1017994This mechanism is used to seamlessly print tuples in the \CFA I/O library (see Section~\ref{s:IOLibrary}).
    1018995
    1019996Finally, it is possible to use @ttype@ polymorphism to provide arbitrary argument forwarding functions.
    1020 For example, it is possible to write @new@ as a library function.
     997For example, it is possible to write @new@ as a library function:
    1021998\begin{cfa}
    1022999forall( otype R, otype S ) void ?{}( pair(R, S) *, R, S );
     
    10271004\end{cfa}
    10281005The @new@ function provides the combination of type-safe @malloc@ with a \CFA constructor call, making it impossible to forget constructing dynamically allocated objects.
    1029 This function provides the type safety of @new@ in \CC, without the need to specify the allocated type again, due to return-type inference.
     1006This function provides the type-safety of @new@ in \CC, without the need to specify the allocated type again, thanks to return-type inference.
    10301007
    10311008
     
    10331010
    10341011Tuples are implemented in the \CFA translator via a transformation into \newterm{generic types}.
    1035 For each $N$, the first time an $N$-tuple is seen in a scope, a generic type with $N$ type parameters is generated.
    1036 For example, the following
     1012For each $N$, the first time an $N$-tuple is seen in a scope a generic type with $N$ type parameters is generated, \eg:
    10371013\begin{cfa}
    10381014[int, int] f() {
     
    10411017}
    10421018\end{cfa}
    1043 is transformed into
     1019is transformed into:
    10441020\begin{cfa}
    10451021forall( dtype T0, dtype T1 | sized(T0) | sized(T1) ) struct _tuple2 {
     
    11071083
    11081084The various kinds of tuple assignment, constructors, and destructors generate GNU C statement expressions.
    1109 A variable is generated to store the value produced by a statement expression, since its members may need to be constructed with a nontrivial constructor and it may need to be referred to multiple time, \eg in a unique expression.
     1085A variable is generated to store the value produced by a statement expression, since its members may need to be constructed with a non-trivial constructor and it may need to be referred to multiple time, \eg in a unique expression.
    11101086The use of statement expressions allows the translator to arbitrarily generate additional temporary variables as needed, but binds the implementation to a non-standard extension of the C language.
    11111087However, there are other places where the \CFA translator makes use of GNU C extensions, such as its use of nested functions, so this restriction is not new.
     
    11151091\section{Control Structures}
    11161092
    1117 \CFA identifies inconsistent, problematic, and missing control structures in C, as well as extends, modifies, and adds control structures to increase functionality and safety.
    1118 
    1119 
    1120 \subsection{\texorpdfstring{\protect\lstinline@if@ statement}{if statement}}
    1121 
    1122 The @if@ expression allows declarations, similar to the @for@ declaration expression.
     1093\CFA identifies inconsistent, problematic, and missing control structures in C, and extends, modifies, and adds control structures to increase functionality and safety.
     1094
     1095
     1096\subsection{\texorpdfstring{\protect\lstinline{if} Statement}{if Statement}}
     1097
     1098The @if@ expression allows declarations, similar to @for@ declaration expression:
    11231099\begin{cfa}
    11241100if ( int x = f() ) ...                                          $\C{// x != 0}$
     
    11271103\end{cfa}
    11281104Unless a relational expression is specified, each variable is compared not equal to 0, which is the standard semantics for the @if@ expression, and the results are combined using the logical @&&@ operator.\footnote{\CC only provides a single declaration always compared not equal to 0.}
    1129 The scope of the declaration(s) is local to the @if@ statement but exists within both the ``then'' and ``else'' clauses.
    1130 
    1131 
    1132 \subsection{\texorpdfstring{\protect\lstinline@switch@ statement}{switch statement}}
     1105The scope of the declaration(s) is local to the @if@ statement but exist within both the ``then'' and ``else'' clauses.
     1106
     1107
     1108\subsection{\texorpdfstring{\protect\lstinline{switch} Statement}{switch Statement}}
    11331109
    11341110There are a number of deficiencies with the C @switch@ statements: enumerating @case@ lists, placement of @case@ clauses, scope of the switch body, and fall through between case clauses.
    11351111
    1136 C has no shorthand for specifying a list of case values, whether the list is noncontiguous or contiguous\footnote{C provides this mechanism via fall through.}.
    1137 \CFA provides a shorthand for a noncontiguous list:
     1112C has no shorthand for specifying a list of case values, whether the list is non-contiguous or contiguous\footnote{C provides this mechanism via fall through.}.
     1113\CFA provides a shorthand for a non-contiguous list:
    11381114\begin{cquote}
    11391115\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    11501126\lstMakeShortInline@%
    11511127\end{cquote}
    1152 for a contiguous list:\footnote{gcc has the same mechanism but awkward syntax, \lstinline@2 ...42@, as a space is required after a number;
    1153 otherwise, the first period is a decimal point.}
     1128for a contiguous list:\footnote{gcc has the same mechanism but awkward syntax, \lstinline@2 ...42@, as a space is required after a number, otherwise the first period is a decimal point.}
    11541129\begin{cquote}
    11551130\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    11821157}
    11831158\end{cfa}
    1184 \CFA precludes this form of transfer \emph{into} a control structure because it causes an undefined behavior, especially with respect to missed initialization, and provides very limited functionality.
    1185 
    1186 C allows placement of declaration within the @switch@ body and unreachable code at the start, resulting in an undefined behavior.
     1159\CFA precludes this form of transfer \emph{into} a control structure because it causes undefined behaviour, especially with respect to missed initialization, and provides very limited functionality.
     1160
     1161C allows placement of declaration within the @switch@ body and unreachable code at the start, resulting in undefined behaviour:
    11871162\begin{cfa}
    11881163switch ( x ) {
     
    12011176
    12021177C @switch@ provides multiple entry points into the statement body, but once an entry point is selected, control continues across \emph{all} @case@ clauses until the end of the @switch@ body, called \newterm{fall through};
    1203 @case@ clauses are made disjoint by the @break@
    1204 \newpage
    1205 \noindent
    1206 statement.
     1178@case@ clauses are made disjoint by the @break@ statement.
    12071179While fall through \emph{is} a useful form of control flow, it does not match well with programmer intuition, resulting in errors from missing @break@ statements.
    1208 For backward compatibility, \CFA provides a \emph{new} control structure, \ie @choose@, which mimics @switch@, but reverses the meaning of fall through (see Figure~\ref{f:ChooseSwitchStatements}), similar to Go.
     1180For backwards compatibility, \CFA provides a \emph{new} control structure, @choose@, which mimics @switch@, but reverses the meaning of fall through (see Figure~\ref{f:ChooseSwitchStatements}), similar to Go.
    12091181
    12101182\begin{figure}
    12111183\centering
    1212 \fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont
    12131184\lstDeleteShortInline@%
    12141185\begin{tabular}{@{}l|@{\hspace{\parindentlnth}}l@{}}
     
    12471218\end{tabular}
    12481219\lstMakeShortInline@%
    1249 \caption{\lstinline|choose| versus \lstinline|switch| statements}
     1220\caption{\lstinline|choose| versus \lstinline|switch| Statements}
    12501221\label{f:ChooseSwitchStatements}
    1251 \vspace*{-11pt}
    12521222\end{figure}
    12531223
    1254 Finally, Figure~\ref{f:FallthroughStatement} shows @fallthrough@ may appear in contexts other than terminating a @case@ clause and have an explicit transfer label allowing separate cases but common final code for a set of cases.
     1224Finally, Figure~\ref{f:FallthroughStatement} shows @fallthrough@ may appear in contexts other than terminating a @case@ clause, and have an explicit transfer label allowing separate cases but common final-code for a set of cases.
    12551225The target label must be below the @fallthrough@ and may not be nested in a control structure, \ie @fallthrough@ cannot form a loop, and the target label must be at the same or higher level as the containing @case@ clause and located at the same level as a @case@ clause;
    12561226the target label may be case @default@, but only associated with the current @switch@/@choose@ statement.
     
    12581228\begin{figure}
    12591229\centering
    1260 \fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont
    12611230\lstDeleteShortInline@%
    12621231\begin{tabular}{@{}l|@{\hspace{\parindentlnth}}l@{}}
     
    12871256\end{tabular}
    12881257\lstMakeShortInline@%
    1289 \caption{\lstinline|fallthrough| statement}
     1258\caption{\lstinline|fallthrough| Statement}
    12901259\label{f:FallthroughStatement}
    1291 \vspace*{-11pt}
    12921260\end{figure}
    12931261
    12941262
    1295 \vspace*{-8pt}
    1296 \subsection{\texorpdfstring{Labeled \protect\lstinline@continue@ / \protect\lstinline@break@}{Labeled continue / break}}
     1263\subsection{\texorpdfstring{Labelled \protect\lstinline{continue} / \protect\lstinline{break}}{Labelled continue / break}}
    12971264
    12981265While C provides @continue@ and @break@ statements for altering control flow, both are restricted to one level of nesting for a particular control structure.
    1299 Unfortunately, this restriction forces programmers to use @goto@ to achieve the equivalent control flow for more than one level of nesting.
    1300 To prevent having to switch to the @goto@, \CFA extends @continue@ and @break@ with a target label to support static multilevel exit~\cite{Buhr85}, as in Java.
     1266Unfortunately, this restriction forces programmers to use @goto@ to achieve the equivalent control-flow for more than one level of nesting.
     1267To prevent having to switch to the @goto@, \CFA extends the @continue@ and @break@ with a target label to support static multi-level exit~\cite{Buhr85}, as in Java.
    13011268For both @continue@ and @break@, the target label must be directly associated with a @for@, @while@ or @do@ statement;
    13021269for @break@, the target label can also be associated with a @switch@, @if@ or compound (@{}@) statement.
    1303 Figure~\ref{f:MultiLevelExit} shows @continue@ and @break@ indicating the specific control structure and the corresponding C program using only @goto@ and labels.
    1304 The innermost loop has seven exit points, which cause a continuation or termination of one or more of the seven nested control structures.
     1270Figure~\ref{f:MultiLevelExit} shows @continue@ and @break@ indicating the specific control structure, and the corresponding C program using only @goto@ and labels.
     1271The innermost loop has 7 exit points, which cause continuation or termination of one or more of the 7 nested control-structures.
    13051272
    13061273\begin{figure}
    1307 \fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont
    13081274\lstDeleteShortInline@%
    13091275\begin{tabular}{@{\hspace{\parindentlnth}}l|@{\hspace{\parindentlnth}}l@{\hspace{\parindentlnth}}l@{}}
     
    13701336\end{tabular}
    13711337\lstMakeShortInline@%
    1372 \caption{Multilevel exit}
     1338\caption{Multi-level Exit}
    13731339\label{f:MultiLevelExit}
    1374 \vspace*{-5pt}
    13751340\end{figure}
    13761341
    1377 With respect to safety, both labeled @continue@ and @break@ are @goto@ restricted in the following ways.
    1378 \begin{list}{$\bullet$}{\topsep=4pt\itemsep=0pt\parsep=0pt}
     1342With respect to safety, both labelled @continue@ and @break@ are a @goto@ restricted in the following ways:
     1343\begin{itemize}
    13791344\item
    13801345They cannot create a loop, which means only the looping constructs cause looping.
     
    13821347\item
    13831348They cannot branch into a control structure.
    1384 This restriction prevents missing declarations and/or initializations at the start of a control structure resulting in an undefined behavior.
    1385 \end{list}
    1386 The advantage of the labeled @continue@/@break@ is allowing static multilevel exits without having to use the @goto@ statement and tying control flow to the target control structure rather than an arbitrary point in a program.
    1387 Furthermore, the location of the label at the \emph{beginning} of the target control structure informs the reader (eye candy) that complex control flow is
    1388 occurring in the body of the control structure.
     1349This restriction prevents missing declarations and/or initializations at the start of a control structure resulting in undefined behaviour.
     1350\end{itemize}
     1351The advantage of the labelled @continue@/@break@ is allowing static multi-level exits without having to use the @goto@ statement, and tying control flow to the target control structure rather than an arbitrary point in a program.
     1352Furthermore, the location of the label at the \emph{beginning} of the target control structure informs the reader (eye candy) that complex control-flow is occurring in the body of the control structure.
    13891353With @goto@, the label is at the end of the control structure, which fails to convey this important clue early enough to the reader.
    1390 Finally, using an explicit target for the transfer instead of an implicit target allows new constructs to be added or removed without affecting the existing constructs.
     1354Finally, using an explicit target for the transfer instead of an implicit target allows new constructs to be added or removed without affecting existing constructs.
    13911355Otherwise, the implicit targets of the current @continue@ and @break@, \ie the closest enclosing loop or @switch@, change as certain constructs are added or removed.
    13921356
    13931357
    1394 \vspace*{-5pt}
    1395 \subsection{Exception handling}
    1396 
    1397 The following framework for \CFA exception handling is in place, excluding some runtime type information and virtual functions.
     1358\subsection{Exception Handling}
     1359
     1360The following framework for \CFA exception-handling is in place, excluding some runtime type-information and virtual functions.
    13981361\CFA provides two forms of exception handling: \newterm{fix-up} and \newterm{recovery} (see Figure~\ref{f:CFAExceptionHandling})~\cite{Buhr92b,Buhr00a}.
    1399 Both mechanisms provide dynamic call to a handler using dynamic name lookup, where fix-up has dynamic return and recovery has static return from the handler.
     1362Both mechanisms provide dynamic call to a handler using dynamic name-lookup, where fix-up has dynamic return and recovery has static return from the handler.
    14001363\CFA restricts exception types to those defined by aggregate type @exception@.
    14011364The form of the raise dictates the set of handlers examined during propagation: \newterm{resumption propagation} (@resume@) only examines resumption handlers (@catchResume@); \newterm{terminating propagation} (@throw@) only examines termination handlers (@catch@).
    1402 If @resume@ or @throw@ has no exception type, it is a reresume/rethrow, which means that the current exception continues propagation.
     1365If @resume@ or @throw@ have no exception type, it is a reresume/rethrow, meaning the currently exception continues propagation.
    14031366If there is no current exception, the reresume/rethrow results in a runtime error.
    14041367
    14051368\begin{figure}
    1406 \fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont
    1407 \lstDeleteShortInline@%
    14081369\begin{cquote}
     1370\lstDeleteShortInline@%
    14091371\begin{tabular}{@{}l|@{\hspace{\parindentlnth}}l@{}}
    14101372\multicolumn{1}{@{}c|@{\hspace{\parindentlnth}}}{\textbf{Resumption}}   & \multicolumn{1}{c@{}}{\textbf{Termination}}   \\
     
    14371399\end{cfa}
    14381400\end{tabular}
     1401\lstMakeShortInline@%
    14391402\end{cquote}
    1440 \lstMakeShortInline@%
    1441 \caption{\CFA exception handling}
     1403\caption{\CFA Exception Handling}
    14421404\label{f:CFAExceptionHandling}
    1443 \vspace*{-5pt}
    14441405\end{figure}
    14451406
    1446 The set of exception types in a list of catch clauses may include both a resumption and a termination handler.
     1407The set of exception types in a list of catch clause may include both a resumption and termination handler:
    14471408\begin{cfa}
    14481409try {
     
    14581419The termination handler is available because the resumption propagation did not unwind the stack.
    14591420
    1460 An additional feature is conditional matching in a catch clause.
     1421An additional feature is conditional matching in a catch clause:
    14611422\begin{cfa}
    14621423try {
     
    14671428   catch ( IOError err ) { ... }                        $\C{// handler error from other files}$
    14681429\end{cfa}
    1469 Here, the throw inserts the failing file handle into the I/O exception.
    1470 Conditional catch cannot be trivially mimicked by other mechanisms because once an exception is caught, handler clauses in that @try@ statement are no longer eligible.
    1471 
    1472 The resumption raise can specify an alternate stack on which to raise an exception, called a \newterm{nonlocal raise}.
     1430where the throw inserts the failing file-handle into the I/O exception.
     1431Conditional catch cannot be trivially mimicked by other mechanisms because once an exception is caught, handler clauses in that @try@ statement are no longer eligible..
     1432
     1433The resumption raise can specify an alternate stack on which to raise an exception, called a \newterm{nonlocal raise}:
    14731434\begin{cfa}
    14741435resume( $\emph{exception-type}$, $\emph{alternate-stack}$ )
     
    14781439Nonlocal raise is restricted to resumption to provide the exception handler the greatest flexibility because processing the exception does not unwind its stack, allowing it to continue after the handler returns.
    14791440
    1480 To facilitate nonlocal raise, \CFA provides dynamic enabling and disabling of nonlocal exception propagation.
    1481 The constructs for controlling propagation of nonlocal exceptions are the @enable@ and @disable@ blocks.
     1441To facilitate nonlocal raise, \CFA provides dynamic enabling and disabling of nonlocal exception-propagation.
     1442The constructs for controlling propagation of nonlocal exceptions are the @enable@ and the @disable@ blocks:
    14821443\begin{cquote}
    14831444\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    14851446\begin{cfa}
    14861447enable $\emph{exception-type-list}$ {
    1487         // allow nonlocal raise
     1448        // allow non-local raise
    14881449}
    14891450\end{cfa}
     
    14911452\begin{cfa}
    14921453disable $\emph{exception-type-list}$ {
    1493         // disallow nonlocal raise
     1454        // disallow non-local raise
    14941455}
    14951456\end{cfa}
     
    14991460The arguments for @enable@/@disable@ specify the exception types allowed to be propagated or postponed, respectively.
    15001461Specifying no exception type is shorthand for specifying all exception types.
    1501 Both @enable@ and @disable@ blocks can be nested;
    1502 turning propagation on/off on entry and on exit, the specified exception types are restored to their prior state.
    1503 Coroutines and tasks start with nonlocal exceptions disabled, allowing handlers to be put in place, before nonlocal exceptions are explicitly enabled.
     1462Both @enable@ and @disable@ blocks can be nested, turning propagation on/off on entry, and on exit, the specified exception types are restored to their prior state.
     1463Coroutines and tasks start with non-local exceptions disabled, allowing handlers to be put in place, before non-local exceptions are explicitly enabled.
    15041464\begin{cfa}
    15051465void main( mytask & t ) {                                       $\C{// thread starts here}$
    1506         // nonlocal exceptions disabled
    1507         try {                                                                   $\C{// establish handles for nonlocal exceptions}$
    1508                 enable {                                                        $\C{// allow nonlocal exception delivery}$
     1466        // non-local exceptions disabled
     1467        try {                                                                   $\C{// establish handles for non-local exceptions}$
     1468                enable {                                                        $\C{// allow non-local exception delivery}$
    15091469                        // task body
    15101470                }
     
    15141474\end{cfa}
    15151475
    1516 Finally, \CFA provides a Java-like  @finally@ clause after the catch clauses.
     1476Finally, \CFA provides a Java like  @finally@ clause after the catch clauses:
    15171477\begin{cfa}
    15181478try {
     
    15231483}
    15241484\end{cfa}
    1525 The finally clause is always executed, \ie, if the try block ends normally or if an exception is raised.
     1485The finally clause is always executed, i.e., if the try block ends normally or if an exception is raised.
    15261486If an exception is raised and caught, the handler is run before the finally clause.
    15271487Like a destructor (see Section~\ref{s:ConstructorsDestructors}), a finally clause can raise an exception but not if there is an exception being propagated.
    1528 Mimicking the @finally@ clause with mechanisms like Resource Aquisition Is Initialization (RAII) is nontrivial when there are multiple types and local accesses.
    1529 
    1530 
    1531 \subsection{\texorpdfstring{\protect\lstinline{with} statement}{with statement}}
     1488Mimicking the @finally@ clause with mechanisms like RAII is non-trivial when there are multiple types and local accesses.
     1489
     1490
     1491\subsection{\texorpdfstring{\protect\lstinline{with} Statement}{with Statement}}
    15321492\label{s:WithStatement}
    15331493
    1534 Heterogeneous data are often aggregated into a structure/union.
    1535 To reduce syntactic noise, \CFA provides a @with@ statement (see section~4.F in the Pascal User Manual and Report~\cite{Pascal}) to elide aggregate member qualification by opening a scope containing the member identifiers.
     1494Heterogeneous data is often aggregated into a structure/union.
     1495To reduce syntactic noise, \CFA provides a @with@ statement (see Pascal~\cite[\S~4.F]{Pascal}) to elide aggregate member-qualification by opening a scope containing the member identifiers.
    15361496\begin{cquote}
    15371497\vspace*{-\baselineskip}%???
     
    15611521Object-oriented programming languages only provide implicit qualification for the receiver.
    15621522
    1563 In detail, the @with@ statement has the form
     1523In detail, the @with@ statement has the form:
    15641524\begin{cfa}
    15651525$\emph{with-statement}$:
     
    15671527\end{cfa}
    15681528and may appear as the body of a function or nested within a function body.
    1569 Each expression in the expression list provides a type and object.
     1529Each expression in the expression-list provides a type and object.
    15701530The type must be an aggregate type.
    15711531(Enumerations are already opened.)
    1572 The object is the implicit qualifier for the open structure members.
     1532The object is the implicit qualifier for the open structure-members.
    15731533
    15741534All expressions in the expression list are open in parallel within the compound statement, which is different from Pascal, which nests the openings from left to right.
    1575 The difference between parallel and nesting occurs for members with the same name and type.
     1535The difference between parallel and nesting occurs for members with the same name and type:
    15761536\begin{cfa}
    15771537struct S { int `i`; int j; double m; } s, w;    $\C{// member i has same type in structure types S and T}$
     
    15871547}
    15881548\end{cfa}
    1589 For parallel semantics, both @s.i@ and @t.i@ are visible and, therefore, @i@ is ambiguous without qualification;
    1590 for nested semantics, @t.i@ hides @s.i@ and, therefore, @i@ implies @t.i@.
     1549For parallel semantics, both @s.i@ and @t.i@ are visible, so @i@ is ambiguous without qualification;
     1550for nested semantics, @t.i@ hides @s.i@, so @i@ implies @t.i@.
    15911551\CFA's ability to overload variables means members with the same name but different types are automatically disambiguated, eliminating most qualification when opening multiple aggregates.
    15921552Qualification or a cast is used to disambiguate.
    15931553
    1594 There is an interesting problem between parameters and the function body @with@.
     1554There is an interesting problem between parameters and the function-body @with@, \eg:
    15951555\begin{cfa}
    15961556void ?{}( S & s, int i ) with ( s ) {           $\C{// constructor}$
     
    15981558}
    15991559\end{cfa}
    1600 Here, the assignment @s.i = i@ means @s.i = s.i@, which is meaningless, and there is no mechanism to qualify the parameter @i@, making the assignment impossible using the function body @with@.
    1601 To solve this problem, parameters are treated like an initialized aggregate
     1560Here, the assignment @s.i = i@ means @s.i = s.i@, which is meaningless, and there is no mechanism to qualify the parameter @i@, making the assignment impossible using the function-body @with@.
     1561To solve this problem, parameters are treated like an initialized aggregate:
    16021562\begin{cfa}
    16031563struct Params {
     
    16061566} params;
    16071567\end{cfa}
    1608 \newpage
    1609 and implicitly opened \emph{after} a function body open, to give them higher priority
     1568and implicitly opened \emph{after} a function-body open, to give them higher priority:
    16101569\begin{cfa}
    16111570void ?{}( S & s, int `i` ) with ( s ) `{` `with( $\emph{\color{red}params}$ )` {
     
    16131572} `}`
    16141573\end{cfa}
    1615 Finally, a cast may be used to disambiguate among overload variables in a @with@ expression
     1574Finally, a cast may be used to disambiguate among overload variables in a @with@ expression:
    16161575\begin{cfa}
    16171576with ( w ) { ... }                                                      $\C{// ambiguous, same name and no context}$
    16181577with ( (S)w ) { ... }                                           $\C{// unambiguous, cast}$
    16191578\end{cfa}
    1620 and @with@ expressions may be complex expressions with type reference (see Section~\ref{s:References}) to aggregate
     1579and @with@ expressions may be complex expressions with type reference (see Section~\ref{s:References}) to aggregate:
    16211580\begin{cfa}
    16221581struct S { int i, j; } sv;
     
    16421601\CFA attempts to correct and add to C declarations, while ensuring \CFA subjectively ``feels like'' C.
    16431602An important part of this subjective feel is maintaining C's syntax and procedural paradigm, as opposed to functional and object-oriented approaches in other systems languages such as \CC and Rust.
    1644 Maintaining the C approach means that C coding patterns remain not only useable but idiomatic in \CFA, reducing the mental burden of retraining C programmers and switching between C and \CFA development.
     1603Maintaining the C approach means that C coding-patterns remain not only useable but idiomatic in \CFA, reducing the mental burden of retraining C programmers and switching between C and \CFA development.
    16451604Nevertheless, some features from other approaches are undeniably convenient;
    16461605\CFA attempts to adapt these features to the C paradigm.
    16471606
    16481607
    1649 \subsection{Alternative declaration syntax}
     1608\subsection{Alternative Declaration Syntax}
    16501609
    16511610C declaration syntax is notoriously confusing and error prone.
    1652 For example, many C programmers are confused by a declaration as simple as the following.
     1611For example, many C programmers are confused by a declaration as simple as:
    16531612\begin{cquote}
    16541613\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    16621621\lstMakeShortInline@%
    16631622\end{cquote}
    1664 Is this an array of five pointers to integers or a pointer to an array of five integers?
     1623Is this an array of 5 pointers to integers or a pointer to an array of 5 integers?
    16651624If there is any doubt, it implies productivity and safety issues even for basic programs.
    16661625Another example of confusion results from the fact that a function name and its parameters are embedded within the return type, mimicking the way the return value is used at the function's call site.
    1667 For example, a function returning a pointer to an array of integers is defined and used in the following way.
     1626For example, a function returning a pointer to an array of integers is defined and used in the following way:
    16681627\begin{cfa}
    16691628int `(*`f`())[`5`]` {...};                                      $\C{// definition}$
     
    16731632While attempting to make the two contexts consistent is a laudable goal, it has not worked out in practice.
    16741633
    1675 \newpage
    1676 \CFA provides its own type, variable, and function declarations, using a different syntax~\cite[pp.~856--859]{Buhr94a}.
    1677 The new declarations place qualifiers to the left of the base type, whereas C declarations place qualifiers to the right.
     1634\CFA provides its own type, variable and function declarations, using a different syntax~\cite[pp.~856--859]{Buhr94a}.
     1635The new declarations place qualifiers to the left of the base type, while C declarations place qualifiers to the right.
    16781636The qualifiers have the same meaning but are ordered left to right to specify a variable's type.
    16791637\begin{cquote}
     
    17011659\lstMakeShortInline@%
    17021660\end{cquote}
    1703 The only exception is bit-field specification, which always appears to the right of the base type.
     1661The only exception is bit-field specification, which always appear to the right of the base type.
    17041662% Specifically, the character @*@ is used to indicate a pointer, square brackets @[@\,@]@ are used to represent an array or function return value, and parentheses @()@ are used to indicate a function parameter.
    17051663However, unlike C, \CFA type declaration tokens are distributed across all variables in the declaration list.
    1706 For instance, variables @x@ and @y@ of type pointer to integer are defined in \CFA as
     1664For instance, variables @x@ and @y@ of type pointer to integer are defined in \CFA as follows:
    17071665\begin{cquote}
    17081666\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    17671725\end{comment}
    17681726
    1769 All specifiers (@extern@, @static@, \etc) and qualifiers (@const@, @volatile@, \etc) are used in the normal way with the new declarations and also appear left to right.
     1727All specifiers (@extern@, @static@, \etc) and qualifiers (@const@, @volatile@, \etc) are used in the normal way with the new declarations and also appear left to right, \eg:
    17701728\begin{cquote}
    17711729\lstDeleteShortInline@%
    17721730\begin{tabular}{@{}l@{\hspace{2\parindentlnth}}l@{\hspace{2\parindentlnth}}l@{}}
    17731731\multicolumn{1}{@{}c@{\hspace{2\parindentlnth}}}{\textbf{\CFA}} & \multicolumn{1}{c@{\hspace{2\parindentlnth}}}{\textbf{C}}     \\
    1774 \begin{cfa}[basicstyle=\linespread{0.9}\fontsize{9bp}{12bp}\selectfont\sf]
     1732\begin{cfa}
    17751733extern const * const int x;
    17761734static const * [5] const int y;
    17771735\end{cfa}
    17781736&
    1779 \begin{cfa}[basicstyle=\linespread{0.9}\fontsize{9bp}{12bp}\selectfont\sf]
     1737\begin{cfa}
    17801738int extern const * const x;
    17811739static const int (* const y)[5]
    17821740\end{cfa}
    17831741&
    1784 \begin{cfa}[basicstyle=\linespread{0.9}\fontsize{9bp}{12bp}\selectfont\sf]
     1742\begin{cfa}
    17851743// external const pointer to const int
    17861744// internal const pointer to array of 5 const int
     
    17901748\end{cquote}
    17911749Specifiers must appear at the start of a \CFA function declaration\footnote{\label{StorageClassSpecifier}
    1792 The placement of a storage-class specifier other than at the beginning of the declaration specifiers in a declaration is an obsolescent feature (see section~6.11.5(1) in ISO/IEC 9899~\cite{C11}).}.
     1750The placement of a storage-class specifier other than at the beginning of the declaration specifiers in a declaration is an obsolescent feature.~\cite[\S~6.11.5(1)]{C11}}.
    17931751
    17941752The new declaration syntax can be used in other contexts where types are required, \eg casts and the pseudo-function @sizeof@:
     
    18111769
    18121770The syntax of the new function-prototype declaration follows directly from the new function-definition syntax;
    1813 also, parameter names are optional.
     1771as well, parameter names are optional, \eg:
    18141772\begin{cfa}
    18151773[ int x ] f ( /* void */ );             $\C[2.5in]{// returning int with no parameters}$
     
    18191777[ * int, int ] j ( int );               $\C{// returning pointer to int and int with int parameter}$
    18201778\end{cfa}
    1821 This syntax allows a prototype declaration to be created by cutting and pasting the source text from the function-definition header (or vice versa).
    1822 Like C, it is possible to declare multiple function prototypes in a single declaration, where the return type is distributed across \emph{all} function names in the declaration list.
     1779This syntax allows a prototype declaration to be created by cutting and pasting source text from the function-definition header (or vice versa).
     1780Like C, it is possible to declare multiple function-prototypes in a single declaration, where the return type is distributed across \emph{all} function names in the declaration list, \eg:
    18231781\begin{cquote}
    18241782\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    18351793\lstMakeShortInline@%
    18361794\end{cquote}
    1837 Here, \CFA allows the last function in the list to define its body.
    1838 
    1839 The syntax for pointers to \CFA functions specifies the pointer name on the right.
     1795where \CFA allows the last function in the list to define its body.
     1796
     1797The syntax for pointers to \CFA functions specifies the pointer name on the right, \eg:
    18401798\begin{cfa}
    18411799* [ int x ] () fp;                              $\C{// pointer to function returning int with no parameters}$
     
    18441802* [ * int, int ] ( int ) jp;    $\C{// pointer to function returning pointer to int and int with int parameter}\CRT$
    18451803\end{cfa}
    1846 \newpage
    1847 \noindent
    1848 Note that the name of the function pointer is specified last, as for other variable declarations.
    1849 
    1850 Finally, new \CFA declarations may appear together with C declarations in the same program block but cannot be mixed within a specific declaration.
    1851 Therefore, a programmer has the option of either continuing to use traditional C declarations or taking advantage of the new style.
    1852 Clearly, both styles need to be supported for some time due to existing C-style header files, particularly for UNIX-like systems.
     1804Note, the name of the function pointer is specified last, as for other variable declarations.
     1805
     1806Finally, new \CFA declarations may appear together with C declarations in the same program block, but cannot be mixed within a specific declaration.
     1807Therefore, a programmer has the option of either continuing to use traditional C declarations or take advantage of the new style.
     1808Clearly, both styles need to be supported for some time due to existing C-style header-files, particularly for UNIX-like systems.
    18531809
    18541810
     
    18581814All variables in C have an \newterm{address}, a \newterm{value}, and a \newterm{type};
    18591815at the position in the program's memory denoted by the address, there exists a sequence of bits (the value), with the length and semantic meaning of this bit sequence defined by the type.
    1860 The C type system does not always track the relationship between a value and its address;
    1861 a value that does not have a corresponding address is called an \newterm{rvalue} (for ``right-hand value''), whereas a value that does have an address is called an \newterm{lvalue} (for ``left-hand value'').
    1862 For example, in @int x; x = 42;@ the variable expression @x@ on the left-hand side of the assignment is an lvalue, whereas the constant expression @42@ on the right-hand side of the assignment is an rvalue.
    1863 Despite the nomenclature of ``left-hand'' and ``right-hand'', an expression's classification as an lvalue or an rvalue is entirely dependent on whether it has an address or not; in imperative programming, the address of a value is used for both reading and writing (mutating) a value, and as such, lvalues can be converted into rvalues and read from, but rvalues cannot be mutated because they lack a location to store the updated value.
     1816The C type-system does not always track the relationship between a value and its address;
     1817a value that does not have a corresponding address is called a \newterm{rvalue} (for ``right-hand value''), while a value that does have an address is called a \newterm{lvalue} (for ``left-hand value'').
     1818For example, in @int x; x = 42;@ the variable expression @x@ on the left-hand-side of the assignment is a lvalue, while the constant expression @42@ on the right-hand-side of the assignment is a rvalue.
     1819Despite the nomenclature of ``left-hand'' and ``right-hand'', an expression's classification as lvalue or rvalue is entirely dependent on whether it has an address or not; in imperative programming, the address of a value is used for both reading and writing (mutating) a value, and as such, lvalues can be converted to rvalues and read from, but rvalues cannot be mutated because they lack a location to store the updated value.
    18641820
    18651821Within a lexical scope, lvalue expressions have an \newterm{address interpretation} for writing a value or a \newterm{value interpretation} to read a value.
    1866 For example, in @x = y@, @x@ has an address interpretation, whereas @y@ has a value interpretation.
     1822For example, in @x = y@, @x@ has an address interpretation, while @y@ has a value interpretation.
    18671823While this duality of interpretation is useful, C lacks a direct mechanism to pass lvalues between contexts, instead relying on \newterm{pointer types} to serve a similar purpose.
    18681824In C, for any type @T@ there is a pointer type @T *@, the value of which is the address of a value of type @T@.
    1869 A pointer rvalue can be explicitly \newterm{dereferenced} to the pointed-to lvalue with the dereference operator @*?@, whereas the rvalue representing the address of an lvalue can be obtained with the address-of operator @&?@.
     1825A pointer rvalue can be explicitly \newterm{dereferenced} to the pointed-to lvalue with the dereference operator @*?@, while the rvalue representing the address of a lvalue can be obtained with the address-of operator @&?@.
     1826
    18701827\begin{cfa}
    18711828int x = 1, y = 2, * p1, * p2, ** p3;
     
    18751832*p2 = ((*p1 + *p2) * (**p3 - *p1)) / (**p3 - 15);
    18761833\end{cfa}
     1834
    18771835Unfortunately, the dereference and address-of operators introduce a great deal of syntactic noise when dealing with pointed-to values rather than pointers, as well as the potential for subtle bugs because of pointer arithmetic.
    18781836For both brevity and clarity, it is desirable for the compiler to figure out how to elide the dereference operators in a complex expression such as the assignment to @*p2@ above.
    1879 However, since C defines a number of forms of \newterm{pointer arithmetic}, two similar expressions involving pointers to arithmetic types (\eg @*p1 + x@ and @p1 + x@) may each have well-defined but distinct semantics, introducing the possibility that a programmer may write one when they mean the other and precluding any simple algorithm for elision of dereference operators.
     1837However, since C defines a number of forms of \newterm{pointer arithmetic}, two similar expressions involving pointers to arithmetic types (\eg @*p1 + x@ and @p1 + x@) may each have well-defined but distinct semantics, introducing the possibility that a programmer may write one when they mean the other, and precluding any simple algorithm for elision of dereference operators.
    18801838To solve these problems, \CFA introduces reference types @T &@;
    1881 a @T &@ has exactly the same value as a @T *@, but where the @T *@ takes the address interpretation by default, a @T &@ takes the value interpretation by default, as below.
     1839a @T &@ has exactly the same value as a @T *@, but where the @T *@ takes the address interpretation by default, a @T &@ takes the value interpretation by default, as below:
     1840
    18821841\begin{cfa}
    18831842int x = 1, y = 2, & r1, & r2, && r3;
     
    18871846r2 = ((r1 + r2) * (r3 - r1)) / (r3 - 15);       $\C{// implicit dereferencing}$
    18881847\end{cfa}
     1848
    18891849Except for auto-dereferencing by the compiler, this reference example is exactly the same as the previous pointer example.
    1890 Hence, a reference behaves like a variable name---an lvalue expression that is interpreted as a value---but also has the type system track the address of that value.
    1891 One way to conceptualize a reference is via a rewrite rule, where the compiler inserts a dereference operator before the reference variable for each reference qualifier in the reference variable declaration;
    1892 thus, the previous example implicitly acts like the following.
     1850Hence, a reference behaves like a variable name -- an lvalue expression which is interpreted as a value -- but also has the type system track the address of that value.
     1851One way to conceptualize a reference is via a rewrite rule, where the compiler inserts a dereference operator before the reference variable for each reference qualifier in the reference variable declaration, so the previous example implicitly acts like:
     1852
    18931853\begin{cfa}
    18941854`*`r2 = ((`*`r1 + `*`r2) * (`**`r3 - `*`r1)) / (`**`r3 - 15);
    18951855\end{cfa}
     1856
    18961857References in \CFA are similar to those in \CC, with important improvements, which can be seen in the example above.
    18971858Firstly, \CFA does not forbid references to references.
    1898 This provides a much more orthogonal design for library \mbox{implementors}, obviating the need for workarounds such as @std::reference_wrapper@.
     1859This provides a much more orthogonal design for library implementors, obviating the need for workarounds such as @std::reference_wrapper@.
    18991860Secondly, \CFA references are rebindable, whereas \CC references have a fixed address.
    1900 Rebinding allows \CFA references to be default initialized (\eg to a null pointer\footnote{
    1901 While effort has been made into non-null reference checking in \CC and Java, the exercise seems moot for any nonmanaged languages (C/\CC), given that it only handles one of many different error situations, \eg using a pointer after its storage is deleted.}) and point to different addresses throughout their lifetime, like pointers.
     1861Rebinding allows \CFA references to be default-initialized (\eg to a null pointer\footnote{
     1862While effort has been made into non-null reference checking in \CC and Java, the exercise seems moot for any non-managed languages (C/\CC), given that it only handles one of many different error situations, \eg using a pointer after its storage is deleted.}) and point to different addresses throughout their lifetime, like pointers.
    19021863Rebinding is accomplished by extending the existing syntax and semantics of the address-of operator in C.
    19031864
    1904 In C, the address of an lvalue is always an rvalue, as, in general, that address is not stored anywhere in memory and does not itself have an address.
    1905 In \CFA, the address of a @T &@ is an lvalue @T *@, as the address of the underlying @T@ is stored in the reference and can thus be mutated there.
     1865In C, the address of a lvalue is always a rvalue, as in general that address is not stored anywhere in memory, and does not itself have an address.
     1866In \CFA, the address of a @T &@ is a lvalue @T *@, as the address of the underlying @T@ is stored in the reference, and can thus be mutated there.
    19061867The result of this rule is that any reference can be rebound using the existing pointer assignment semantics by assigning a compatible pointer into the address of the reference, \eg @&r1 = &x;@ above.
    19071868This rebinding occurs to an arbitrary depth of reference nesting;
    19081869loosely speaking, nested address-of operators produce a nested lvalue pointer up to the depth of the reference.
    19091870These explicit address-of operators can be thought of as ``cancelling out'' the implicit dereference operators, \eg @(&`*`)r1 = &x@ or @(&(&`*`)`*`)r3 = &(&`*`)r1@ or even @(&`*`)r2 = (&`*`)`*`r3@ for @&r2 = &r3@.
    1910 The precise rules are
     1871More precisely:
    19111872\begin{itemize}
    19121873\item
    1913 If @R@ is an rvalue of type @T &@$_1\cdots$ @&@$_r$, where $r \ge 1$ references (@&@ symbols), than @&R@ has type @T `*`&@$_{\color{red}2}\cdots$ @&@$_{\color{red}r}$, \ie @T@ pointer with $r-1$ references (@&@ symbols).
     1874if @R@ is an rvalue of type {@T &@$_1 \cdots$@ &@$_r$} where $r \ge 1$ references (@&@ symbols) then @&R@ has type {@T `*`&@$_{\color{red}2} \cdots$@ &@$_{\color{red}r}$}, \\ \ie @T@ pointer with $r-1$ references (@&@ symbols).
     1875       
    19141876\item
    1915 If @L@ is an lvalue of type @T &@$_1\cdots$ @&@$_l$, where $l \ge 0$ references (@&@ symbols), than @&L@ has type @T `*`&@$_{\color{red}1}\cdots$ @&@$_{\color{red}l}$, \ie @T@ pointer with $l$ references (@&@ symbols).
     1877if @L@ is an lvalue of type {@T &@$_1 \cdots$@ &@$_l$} where $l \ge 0$ references (@&@ symbols) then @&L@ has type {@T `*`&@$_{\color{red}1} \cdots$@ &@$_{\color{red}l}$}, \\ \ie @T@ pointer with $l$ references (@&@ symbols).
    19161878\end{itemize}
    1917 Since pointers and references share the same internal representation, code using either is equally performant;
    1918 in fact, the \CFA compiler converts references into pointers internally, and the choice between them is made solely on convenience, \eg many pointer or value accesses.
     1879Since pointers and references share the same internal representation, code using either is equally performant; in fact the \CFA compiler converts references to pointers internally, and the choice between them is made solely on convenience, \eg many pointer or value accesses.
    19191880
    19201881By analogy to pointers, \CFA references also allow cv-qualifiers such as @const@:
     
    19311892There are three initialization contexts in \CFA: declaration initialization, argument/parameter binding, and return/temporary binding.
    19321893In each of these contexts, the address-of operator on the target lvalue is elided.
    1933 The syntactic motivation is clearest when considering overloaded operator assignment, \eg @int ?+=?(int &, int)@; given @int x, y@, the expected call syntax is @x += y@, not @&x += y@.
    1934 
    1935 More generally, this initialization of references from lvalues rather than pointers is an instance of an ``lvalue-to-reference'' conversion rather than an elision of the address-of operator;
     1894The syntactic motivation is clearest when considering overloaded operator-assignment, \eg @int ?+=?(int &, int)@; given @int x, y@, the expected call syntax is @x += y@, not @&x += y@.
     1895
     1896More generally, this initialization of references from lvalues rather than pointers is an instance of a ``lvalue-to-reference'' conversion rather than an elision of the address-of operator;
    19361897this conversion is used in any context in \CFA where an implicit conversion is allowed.
    1937 Similarly, use of the value pointed to by a reference in an rvalue context can be thought of as a ``reference-to-rvalue'' conversion, and \CFA also includes a qualifier-adding ``reference-to-reference'' conversion, analogous to the @T *@ to @const T *@ conversion in standard C.
    1938 The final reference conversion included in \CFA is an ``rvalue-to-reference'' conversion, implemented by means of an implicit temporary.
     1898Similarly, use of a the value pointed to by a reference in an rvalue context can be thought of as a ``reference-to-rvalue'' conversion, and \CFA also includes a qualifier-adding ``reference-to-reference'' conversion, analogous to the @T *@ to @const T *@ conversion in standard C.
     1899The final reference conversion included in \CFA is ``rvalue-to-reference'' conversion, implemented by means of an implicit temporary.
    19391900When an rvalue is used to initialize a reference, it is instead used to initialize a hidden temporary value with the same lexical scope as the reference, and the reference is initialized to the address of this temporary.
    19401901\begin{cfa}
     
    19441905f( 3, x + y, (S){ 1.0, 7.0 }, (int [3]){ 1, 2, 3 } ); $\C{// pass rvalue to lvalue \(\Rightarrow\) implicit temporary}$
    19451906\end{cfa}
    1946 This allows complex values to be succinctly and efficiently passed to functions, without the syntactic overhead of the explicit definition of a temporary variable or the runtime cost of pass-by-value.
    1947 \CC allows a similar binding, but only for @const@ references; the more general semantics of \CFA are an attempt to avoid the \newterm{const poisoning} problem~\cite{Taylor10}, in which the addition of a @const@ qualifier to one reference requires a cascading chain of added qualifiers.
    1948 
    1949 
    1950 \subsection{Type nesting}
    1951 
    1952 Nested types provide a mechanism to organize associated types and refactor a subset of members into a named aggregate (\eg subaggregates @name@, @address@, @department@, within aggregate @employe@).
    1953 Java nested types are dynamic (apply to objects), \CC are static (apply to the \lstinline[language=C++]@class@), and C hoists (refactors) nested types into the enclosing scope, which means there is no need for type qualification.
    1954 Since \CFA in not object oriented, adopting dynamic scoping does not make sense;
    1955 instead, \CFA adopts \CC static nesting, using the member-selection operator ``@.@'' for type qualification, as does Java, rather than the \CC type-selection operator ``@::@'' (see Figure~\ref{f:TypeNestingQualification}).
    1956 In the C left example, types @C@, @U@ and @T@ are implicitly hoisted outside of type @S@ into the containing block scope.
    1957 In the \CFA right example, the types are not hoisted and accessible.
    1958 
     1907This allows complex values to be succinctly and efficiently passed to functions, without the syntactic overhead of explicit definition of a temporary variable or the runtime cost of pass-by-value.
     1908\CC allows a similar binding, but only for @const@ references; the more general semantics of \CFA are an attempt to avoid the \newterm{const poisoning} problem~\cite{Taylor10}, in which addition of a @const@ qualifier to one reference requires a cascading chain of added qualifiers.
     1909
     1910
     1911\subsection{Type Nesting}
     1912
     1913Nested types provide a mechanism to organize associated types and refactor a subset of members into a named aggregate (\eg sub-aggregates @name@, @address@, @department@, within aggregate @employe@).
     1914Java nested types are dynamic (apply to objects), \CC are static (apply to the \lstinline[language=C++]@class@), and C hoists (refactors) nested types into the enclosing scope, meaning there is no need for type qualification.
     1915Since \CFA in not object-oriented, adopting dynamic scoping does not make sense;
     1916instead \CFA adopts \CC static nesting, using the member-selection operator ``@.@'' for type qualification, as does Java, rather than the \CC type-selection operator ``@::@'' (see Figure~\ref{f:TypeNestingQualification}).
    19591917\begin{figure}
    19601918\centering
    1961 \fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont\sf
    19621919\lstDeleteShortInline@%
    19631920\begin{tabular}{@{}l@{\hspace{3em}}l|l@{}}
     
    20211978\end{tabular}
    20221979\lstMakeShortInline@%
    2023 \caption{Type nesting / qualification}
     1980\caption{Type Nesting / Qualification}
    20241981\label{f:TypeNestingQualification}
    2025 \vspace*{-8pt}
    20261982\end{figure}
    2027 
    2028 
    2029 \vspace*{-8pt}
    2030 \subsection{Constructors and destructors}
     1983In the C left example, types @C@, @U@ and @T@ are implicitly hoisted outside of type @S@ into the containing block scope.
     1984In the \CFA right example, the types are not hoisted and accessible.
     1985
     1986
     1987\subsection{Constructors and Destructors}
    20311988\label{s:ConstructorsDestructors}
    20321989
    2033 One of the strengths (and weaknesses) of C is memory-management control, allowing resource release to be precisely specified versus unknown release with garbage-collected memory management.
     1990One of the strengths (and weaknesses) of C is memory-management control, allowing resource release to be precisely specified versus unknown release with garbage-collected memory-management.
    20341991However, this manual approach is verbose, and it is useful to manage resources other than memory (\eg file handles) using the same mechanism as memory.
    2035 \CC addresses these issues using RAII, implemented by means of \newterm{constructor} and \newterm{destructor} functions;
     1992\CC addresses these issues using Resource Aquisition Is Initialization (RAII), implemented by means of \newterm{constructor} and \newterm{destructor} functions;
    20361993\CFA adopts constructors and destructors (and @finally@) to facilitate RAII.
    2037 While constructors and destructors are a common feature of object-oriented programming languages, they are an independent capability allowing \CFA to adopt them while retaining a procedural paradigm.
    2038 Specifically, \CFA constructors and destructors are denoted by name and first parameter type versus name and nesting in an aggregate type.
     1994While constructors and destructors are a common feature of object-oriented programming-languages, they are an independent capability allowing \CFA to adopt them while retaining a procedural paradigm.
     1995Specifically, \CFA constructors and destructors are denoted by name and first parameter-type versus name and nesting in an aggregate type.
    20391996Constructor calls seamlessly integrate with existing C initialization syntax, providing a simple and familiar syntax to C programmers and allowing constructor calls to be inserted into legacy C code with minimal code changes.
    20401997
     
    20452002The constructor and destructor have return type @void@, and the first parameter is a reference to the object type to be constructed or destructed.
    20462003While the first parameter is informally called the @this@ parameter, as in object-oriented languages, any variable name may be used.
    2047 Both constructors and destructors allow additional parameters after the @this@ parameter for specifying values for initialization/deinitialization\footnote{
    2048 Destruction parameters are useful for specifying storage-management actions, such as deinitialize but not deallocate.}.
    2049 \begin{cfa}[basicstyle=\linespread{0.9}\fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont\sf]
     2004Both constructors and destructors allow additional parameters after the @this@ parameter for specifying values for initialization/de-initialization\footnote{
     2005Destruction parameters are useful for specifying storage-management actions, such as de-initialize but not deallocate.}.
     2006\begin{cfa}
    20502007struct VLA { int size, * data; };                       $\C{// variable length array of integers}$
    20512008void ?{}( VLA & vla ) with ( vla ) { size = 10;  data = alloc( size ); }  $\C{// default constructor}$
     
    20562013\end{cfa}
    20572014@VLA@ is a \newterm{managed type}\footnote{
    2058 A managed type affects the runtime environment versus a self-contained type.}: a type requiring a nontrivial constructor or destructor, or with a member of a managed type.
     2015A managed type affects the runtime environment versus a self-contained type.}: a type requiring a non-trivial constructor or destructor, or with a member of a managed type.
    20592016A managed type is implicitly constructed at allocation and destructed at deallocation to ensure proper interaction with runtime resources, in this case, the @data@ array in the heap.
    2060 For details of the code-generation placement of implicit constructor and destructor calls among complex executable statements, see section~2.2 in the work of Schlintz~\cite{Schluntz17}.
    2061 
    2062 \CFA also provides syntax for \newterm{initialization} and \newterm{copy}.
     2017For details of the code-generation placement of implicit constructor and destructor calls among complex executable statements see~\cite[\S~2.2]{Schluntz17}.
     2018
     2019\CFA also provides syntax for \newterm{initialization} and \newterm{copy}:
    20632020\begin{cfa}
    20642021void ?{}( VLA & vla, int size, char fill = '\0' ) {  $\C{// initialization}$
     
    20692026}
    20702027\end{cfa}
    2071 (Note that the example is purposely simplified using shallow-copy semantics.)
    2072 An initialization constructor call has the same syntax as a C initializer, except that the initialization values are passed as arguments to a matching constructor (number and type of parameters).
     2028(Note, the example is purposely simplified using shallow-copy semantics.)
     2029An initialization constructor-call has the same syntax as a C initializer, except the initialization values are passed as arguments to a matching constructor (number and type of paremeters).
    20732030\begin{cfa}
    20742031VLA va = `{` 20, 0 `}`,  * arr = alloc()`{` 5, 0 `}`;
    20752032\end{cfa}
    2076 Note the use of a \newterm{constructor expression} to initialize the storage from the dynamic storage allocation.
     2033Note, the use of a \newterm{constructor expression} to initialize the storage from the dynamic storage-allocation.
    20772034Like \CC, the copy constructor has two parameters, the second of which is a value parameter with the same type as the first parameter;
    20782035appropriate care is taken to not recursively call the copy constructor when initializing the second parameter.
     
    20802037\CFA constructors may be explicitly called, like Java, and destructors may be explicitly called, like \CC.
    20812038Explicit calls to constructors double as a \CC-style \emph{placement syntax}, useful for construction of members in user-defined constructors and reuse of existing storage allocations.
    2082 Like the other operators in \CFA, there is a concise syntax for constructor/destructor function calls.
     2039Like the other operators in \CFA, there is a concise syntax for constructor/destructor function calls:
    20832040\begin{cfa}
    20842041{
     
    20962053To provide a uniform type interface for @otype@ polymorphism, the \CFA compiler automatically generates a default constructor, copy constructor, assignment operator, and destructor for all types.
    20972054These default functions can be overridden by user-generated versions.
    2098 For compatibility with the standard behavior of C, the default constructor and destructor for all basic, pointer, and reference types do nothing, whereas the copy constructor and assignment operator are bitwise copies;
    2099 if default zero initialization is desired, the default constructors can be overridden.
     2055For compatibility with the standard behaviour of C, the default constructor and destructor for all basic, pointer, and reference types do nothing, while the copy constructor and assignment operator are bitwise copies;
     2056if default zero-initialization is desired, the default constructors can be overridden.
    21002057For user-generated types, the four functions are also automatically generated.
    21012058@enum@ types are handled the same as their underlying integral type, and unions are also bitwise copied and no-op initialized and destructed.
    21022059For compatibility with C, a copy constructor from the first union member type is also defined.
    2103 For @struct@ types, each of the four functions is implicitly defined to call their corresponding functions on each member of the struct.
    2104 To better simulate the behavior of C initializers, a set of \newterm{member constructors} is also generated for structures.
    2105 A constructor is generated for each nonempty prefix of a structure's member list to copy-construct the members passed as parameters and default-construct the remaining members.
     2060For @struct@ types, each of the four functions are implicitly defined to call their corresponding functions on each member of the struct.
     2061To better simulate the behaviour of C initializers, a set of \newterm{member constructors} is also generated for structures.
     2062A constructor is generated for each non-empty prefix of a structure's member-list to copy-construct the members passed as parameters and default-construct the remaining members.
    21062063To allow users to limit the set of constructors available for a type, when a user declares any constructor or destructor, the corresponding generated function and all member constructors for that type are hidden from expression resolution;
    2107 similarly, the generated default constructor is hidden upon the declaration of any constructor.
     2064similarly, the generated default constructor is hidden upon declaration of any constructor.
    21082065These semantics closely mirror the rule for implicit declaration of constructors in \CC\cite[p.~186]{ANSI98:C++}.
    21092066
    2110 In some circumstance, programmers may not wish to have implicit constructor and destructor generation and calls.
    2111 In these cases, \CFA provides the initialization syntax \lstinline|S x `@=` {}|, and the object becomes unmanaged;
    2112 hence, implicit \mbox{constructor} and destructor calls are not generated.
     2067In some circumstance programmers may not wish to have implicit constructor and destructor generation and calls.
     2068In these cases, \CFA provides the initialization syntax \lstinline|S x `@=` {}|, and the object becomes unmanaged, so implicit constructor and destructor calls are not generated.
    21132069Any C initializer can be the right-hand side of an \lstinline|@=| initializer, \eg \lstinline|VLA a @= { 0, 0x0 }|, with the usual C initialization semantics.
    21142070The same syntax can be used in a compound literal, \eg \lstinline|a = (VLA)`@`{ 0, 0x0 }|, to create a C-style literal.
    2115 The point of \lstinline|@=| is to provide a migration path from legacy C code to \CFA, by providing a mechanism to incrementally convert into implicit initialization.
     2071The point of \lstinline|@=| is to provide a migration path from legacy C code to \CFA, by providing a mechanism to incrementally convert to implicit initialization.
    21162072
    21172073
     
    21212077\section{Literals}
    21222078
    2123 C already includes limited polymorphism for literals---@0@ can be either an integer or a pointer literal, depending on context, whereas the syntactic forms of literals of the various integer and float types are very similar, differing from each other only in suffix.
    2124 In keeping with the general \CFA approach of adding features while respecting the ``C style'' of doing things, C's polymorphic constants and typed literal syntax are extended to interoperate with user-defined types, while maintaining a backward-compatible semantics.
     2079C already includes limited polymorphism for literals -- @0@ can be either an integer or a pointer literal, depending on context, while the syntactic forms of literals of the various integer and float types are very similar, differing from each other only in suffix.
     2080In keeping with the general \CFA approach of adding features while respecting the ``C-style'' of doing things, C's polymorphic constants and typed literal syntax are extended to interoperate with user-defined types, while maintaining a backwards-compatible semantics.
    21252081
    21262082A simple example is allowing the underscore, as in Ada, to separate prefixes, digits, and suffixes in all \CFA constants, \eg @0x`_`1.ffff`_`ffff`_`p`_`128`_`l@, where the underscore is also the standard separator in C identifiers.
    2127 \CC uses a single quote as a separator, but it is restricted among digits, precluding its use in the literal prefix or suffix, \eg @0x1.ffff@@`'@@ffffp128l@, and causes problems with most integrated development environments (IDEs), which must be extended to deal with this alternate use of the single quote.
     2083\CC uses a single quote as a separator but it is restricted among digits, precluding its use in the literal prefix or suffix, \eg @0x1.ffff@@`'@@ffffp128l@, and causes problems with most IDEs, which must be extended to deal with this alternate use of the single quote.
    21282084
    21292085
     
    21682124
    21692125In C, @0@ has the special property that it is the only ``false'' value;
    2170 by the standard, any value that compares equal to @0@ is false, whereas any value that compares unequal to @0@ is true.
    2171 As such, an expression @x@ in any Boolean context (such as the condition of an @if@ or @while@ statement, or the arguments to @&&@, @||@, or @?:@\,) can be rewritten as @x != 0@ without changing its semantics.
     2126by the standard, any value that compares equal to @0@ is false, while any value that compares unequal to @0@ is true.
     2127As such, an expression @x@ in any boolean context (such as the condition of an @if@ or @while@ statement, or the arguments to @&&@, @||@, or @?:@\,) can be rewritten as @x != 0@ without changing its semantics.
    21722128Operator overloading in \CFA provides a natural means to implement this truth-value comparison for arbitrary types, but the C type system is not precise enough to distinguish an equality comparison with @0@ from an equality comparison with an arbitrary integer or pointer.
    21732129To provide this precision, \CFA introduces a new type @zero_t@ as the type of literal @0@ (somewhat analagous to @nullptr_t@ and @nullptr@ in \CCeleven);
     
    21752131With this addition, \CFA rewrites @if (x)@ and similar expressions to @if ( (x) != 0 )@ or the appropriate analogue, and any type @T@ is ``truthy'' by defining an operator overload @int ?!=?( T, zero_t )@.
    21762132\CC makes types truthy by adding a conversion to @bool@;
    2177 prior to the addition of explicit cast operators in \CCeleven, this approach had the pitfall of making truthy types transitively convertible into any numeric type;
     2133prior to the addition of explicit cast operators in \CCeleven, this approach had the pitfall of making truthy types transitively convertable to any numeric type;
    21782134\CFA avoids this issue.
    21792135
     
    21862142
    21872143
    2188 \subsection{User literals}
     2144\subsection{User Literals}
    21892145
    21902146For readability, it is useful to associate units to scale literals, \eg weight (stone, pound, kilogram) or time (seconds, minutes, hours).
    2191 The left of Figure~\ref{f:UserLiteral} shows the \CFA alternative call syntax (postfix: literal argument before function name), using the backquote, to convert basic literals into user literals.
     2147The left of Figure~\ref{f:UserLiteral} shows the \CFA alternative call-syntax (postfix: literal argument before function name), using the backquote, to convert basic literals into user literals.
    21922148The backquote is a small character, making the unit (function name) predominate.
    2193 For examples, the multiprecision integer type in Section~\ref{s:MultiPrecisionIntegers} has the following user literals.
     2149For examples, the multi-precision integer-type in Section~\ref{s:MultiPrecisionIntegers} has user literals:
    21942150{\lstset{language=CFA,moredelim=**[is][\color{red}]{|}{|},deletedelim=**[is][]{`}{`}}
    21952151\begin{cfa}
     
    21972153y = "12345678901234567890123456789"|`mp| + "12345678901234567890123456789"|`mp|;
    21982154\end{cfa}
    2199 Because \CFA uses a standard function, all types and literals are applicable, as well as overloading and conversions, where @?`@ denotes a postfix-function name and @`@  denotes a postfix-function call.
     2155Because \CFA uses a standard function, all types and literals are applicable, as well as overloading and conversions, where @?`@ denotes a postfix-function name and @`@ denotes a postfix-function call.
    22002156}%
    22012157\begin{cquote}
     
    22392195\end{cquote}
    22402196
    2241 The right of Figure~\ref{f:UserLiteral} shows the equivalent \CC version using the underscore for the call syntax.
     2197The right of Figure~\ref{f:UserLiteral} shows the equivalent \CC version using the underscore for the call-syntax.
    22422198However, \CC restricts the types, \eg @unsigned long long int@ and @long double@ to represent integral and floating literals.
    22432199After which, user literals must match (no conversions);
     
    22462202\begin{figure}
    22472203\centering
    2248 \fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont
    22492204\lstset{language=CFA,moredelim=**[is][\color{red}]{|}{|},deletedelim=**[is][]{`}{`}}
    22502205\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    23022257\end{tabular}
    23032258\lstMakeShortInline@%
    2304 \caption{User literal}
     2259\caption{User Literal}
    23052260\label{f:UserLiteral}
    23062261\end{figure}
     
    23102265\label{sec:libraries}
    23112266
    2312 As stated in Section~\ref{sec:poly-fns}, \CFA inherits a large corpus of library code, where other programming languages must rewrite or provide fragile interlanguage communication with C.
     2267As stated in Section~\ref{sec:poly-fns}, \CFA inherits a large corpus of library code, where other programming languages must rewrite or provide fragile inter-language communication with C.
    23132268\CFA has replacement libraries condensing hundreds of existing C names into tens of \CFA overloaded names, all without rewriting the actual computations.
    2314 In many cases, the interface is an inline wrapper providing overloading during compilation but of zero cost at runtime.
     2269In many cases, the interface is an inline wrapper providing overloading during compilation but zero cost at runtime.
    23152270The following sections give a glimpse of the interface reduction to many C libraries.
    23162271In many cases, @signed@/@unsigned@ @char@, @short@, and @_Complex@ functions are available (but not shown) to ensure expression computations remain in a single type, as conversions can distort results.
     
    23202275
    23212276C library @limits.h@ provides lower and upper bound constants for the basic types.
    2322 \CFA name overloading is used to condense these typed constants.
     2277\CFA name overloading is used to condense these typed constants, \eg:
    23232278\begin{cquote}
    23242279\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    23392294\lstMakeShortInline@%
    23402295\end{cquote}
    2341 The result is a significant reduction in names to access typed constants.
     2296The result is a significant reduction in names to access typed constants, \eg:
    23422297\begin{cquote}
    23432298\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    23652320
    23662321C library @math.h@ provides many mathematical functions.
    2367 \CFA function overloading is used to condense these mathematical functions.
     2322\CFA function overloading is used to condense these mathematical functions, \eg:
    23682323\begin{cquote}
    23692324\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    23842339\lstMakeShortInline@%
    23852340\end{cquote}
    2386 The result is a significant reduction in names to access math functions.
     2341The result is a significant reduction in names to access math functions, \eg:
    23872342\begin{cquote}
    23882343\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    24032358\lstMakeShortInline@%
    24042359\end{cquote}
    2405 While \Celeven has type-generic math (see section~7.25 of the ISO/IEC 9899\cite{C11}) in @tgmath.h@ to provide a similar mechanism, these macros are limited, matching a function name with a single set of floating type(s).
     2360While \Celeven has type-generic math~\cite[\S~7.25]{C11} in @tgmath.h@ to provide a similar mechanism, these macros are limited, matching a function name with a single set of floating type(s).
    24062361For example, it is impossible to overload @atan@ for both one and two arguments;
    2407 instead, the names @atan@ and @atan2@ are required (see Section~\ref{s:NameOverloading}).
    2408 The key observation is that only a restricted set of type-generic macros is provided for a limited set of function names, which do not generalize across the type system, as in \CFA.
     2362instead the names @atan@ and @atan2@ are required (see Section~\ref{s:NameOverloading}).
     2363The key observation is that only a restricted set of type-generic macros are provided for a limited set of function names, which do not generalize across the type system, as in \CFA.
    24092364
    24102365
     
    24122367
    24132368C library @stdlib.h@ provides many general functions.
    2414 \CFA function overloading is used to condense these utility functions.
     2369\CFA function overloading is used to condense these utility functions, \eg:
    24152370\begin{cquote}
    24162371\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    24312386\lstMakeShortInline@%
    24322387\end{cquote}
    2433 The result is a significant reduction in names to access the utility functions.
     2388The result is a significant reduction in names to access utility functions, \eg:
    24342389\begin{cquote}
    24352390\lstDeleteShortInline@%
     
    24502405\lstMakeShortInline@%
    24512406\end{cquote}
    2452 In addition, there are polymorphic functions, like @min@ and @max@, that work on any type with operator @?<?@ or @?>?@.
     2407In additon, there are polymorphic functions, like @min@ and @max@, that work on any type with operators @?<?@ or @?>?@.
    24532408
    24542409The following shows one example where \CFA \emph{extends} an existing standard C interface to reduce complexity and provide safety.
    2455 C/\Celeven provide a number of complex and overlapping storage-management operations to support the following capabilities.
    2456 \begin{list}{}{\itemsep=0pt\parsep=0pt\labelwidth=0pt\leftmargin\parindent\itemindent-\leftmargin\let\makelabel\descriptionlabel}
     2410C/\Celeven provide a number of complex and overlapping storage-management operation to support the following capabilities:
     2411\begin{description}%[topsep=3pt,itemsep=2pt,parsep=0pt]
    24572412\item[fill]
    24582413an allocation with a specified character.
    24592414\item[resize]
    24602415an existing allocation to decrease or increase its size.
    2461 In either case, new storage may or may not be allocated, and if there is a new allocation, as much data from the existing allocation are copied.
     2416In either case, new storage may or may not be allocated and, if there is a new allocation, as much data from the existing allocation is copied.
    24622417For an increase in storage size, new storage after the copied data may be filled.
    2463 \newpage
    24642418\item[align]
    24652419an allocation on a specified memory boundary, \eg, an address multiple of 64 or 128 for cache-line purposes.
     
    24672421allocation with a specified number of elements.
    24682422An array may be filled, resized, or aligned.
    2469 \end{list}
    2470 Table~\ref{t:StorageManagementOperations} shows the capabilities provided by C/\Celeven allocation functions and how all the capabilities can be combined into two \CFA functions.
    2471 \CFA storage-management functions extend the C equivalents by overloading, providing shallow type safety, and removing the need to specify the base allocation size.
    2472 Figure~\ref{f:StorageAllocation} contrasts \CFA and C storage allocation performing the same operations with the same type safety.
     2423\end{description}
     2424Table~\ref{t:StorageManagementOperations} shows the capabilities provided by C/\Celeven allocation-functions and how all the capabilities can be combined into two \CFA functions.
     2425\CFA storage-management functions extend the C equivalents by overloading, providing shallow type-safety, and removing the need to specify the base allocation-size.
     2426Figure~\ref{f:StorageAllocation} contrasts \CFA and C storage-allocation performing the same operations with the same type safety.
    24732427
    24742428\begin{table}
    2475 \caption{Storage-management operations}
     2429\caption{Storage-Management Operations}
    24762430\label{t:StorageManagementOperations}
    24772431\centering
    24782432\lstDeleteShortInline@%
    24792433\lstMakeShortInline~%
    2480 \begin{tabular}{@{}rrllll@{}}
    2481 \multicolumn{1}{c}{}&           & \multicolumn{1}{c}{fill}      & resize        & align & array \\
     2434\begin{tabular}{@{}r|r|l|l|l|l@{}}
     2435\multicolumn{1}{c}{}&           & \multicolumn{1}{c|}{fill}     & resize        & align & array \\
     2436\hline
    24822437C               & ~malloc~                      & no                    & no            & no            & no    \\
    24832438                & ~calloc~                      & yes (0 only)  & no            & no            & yes   \\
     
    24852440                & ~memalign~            & no                    & no            & yes           & no    \\
    24862441                & ~posix_memalign~      & no                    & no            & yes           & no    \\
     2442\hline
    24872443C11             & ~aligned_alloc~       & no                    & no            & yes           & no    \\
     2444\hline
    24882445\CFA    & ~alloc~                       & yes/copy              & no/yes        & no            & yes   \\
    24892446                & ~align_alloc~         & yes                   & no            & yes           & yes   \\
     
    24952452\begin{figure}
    24962453\centering
    2497 \fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont
    24982454\begin{cfa}[aboveskip=0pt,xleftmargin=0pt]
    24992455size_t  dim = 10;                                                       $\C{// array dimension}$
     
    25332489\end{tabular}
    25342490\lstMakeShortInline@%
    2535 \caption{\CFA versus C storage allocation}
     2491\caption{\CFA versus C Storage-Allocation}
    25362492\label{f:StorageAllocation}
    25372493\end{figure}
    25382494
    25392495Variadic @new@ (see Section~\ref{sec:variadic-tuples}) cannot support the same overloading because extra parameters are for initialization.
    2540 Hence, there are @new@ and @anew@ functions for single and array variables, and the fill value is the arguments to the constructor.
     2496Hence, there are @new@ and @anew@ functions for single and array variables, and the fill value is the arguments to the constructor, \eg:
    25412497\begin{cfa}
    25422498struct S { int i, j; };
     
    25452501S * as = anew( dim, 2, 3 );                                     $\C{// each array element initialized to 2, 3}$
    25462502\end{cfa}
    2547 Note that \CC can only initialize array elements via the default constructor.
    2548 
    2549 Finally, the \CFA memory allocator has \newterm{sticky properties} for dynamic storage: fill and alignment are remembered with an object's storage in the heap.
     2503Note, \CC can only initialize array elements via the default constructor.
     2504
     2505Finally, the \CFA memory-allocator has \newterm{sticky properties} for dynamic storage: fill and alignment are remembered with an object's storage in the heap.
    25502506When a @realloc@ is performed, the sticky properties are respected, so that new storage is correctly aligned and initialized with the fill character.
    25512507
     
    25542510\label{s:IOLibrary}
    25552511
    2556 The goal of \CFA I/O is to simplify the common cases, while fully supporting polymorphism and user-defined types in a consistent way.
     2512The goal of \CFA I/O is to simplify the common cases, while fully supporting polymorphism and user defined types in a consistent way.
    25572513The approach combines ideas from \CC and Python.
    25582514The \CFA header file for the I/O library is @fstream@.
     
    25832539\lstMakeShortInline@%
    25842540\end{cquote}
    2585 The \CFA form has half the characters of the \CC form and is similar to Python I/O with respect to implicit separators.
     2541The \CFA form has half the characters of the \CC form, and is similar to Python I/O with respect to implicit separators.
    25862542Similar simplification occurs for tuple I/O, which prints all tuple values separated by ``\lstinline[showspaces=true]@, @''.
    25872543\begin{cfa}
     
    26162572\lstMakeShortInline@%
    26172573\end{cquote}
    2618 There is a weak similarity between the \CFA logical-or operator and the Shell pipe operator for moving data, where data flow in the correct direction for input but in the opposite direction for output.
     2574There is a weak similarity between the \CFA logical-or operator and the Shell pipe-operator for moving data, where data flows in the correct direction for input but the opposite direction for output.
    26192575\begin{comment}
    26202576The implicit separator character (space/blank) is a separator not a terminator.
     
    26372593\end{itemize}
    26382594\end{comment}
    2639 There are functions to set and get the separator string and manipulators to toggle separation on and off in the middle of output.
    2640 
    2641 
    2642 \subsection{Multiprecision integers}
     2595There are functions to set and get the separator string, and manipulators to toggle separation on and off in the middle of output.
     2596
     2597
     2598\subsection{Multi-precision Integers}
    26432599\label{s:MultiPrecisionIntegers}
    26442600
    2645 \CFA has an interface to the GNU multiple precision (GMP) signed integers~\cite{GMP}, similar to the \CC interface provided by GMP.
    2646 The \CFA interface wraps GMP functions into operator functions to make programming with multiprecision integers identical to using fixed-sized integers.
    2647 The \CFA type name for multiprecision signed integers is @Int@ and the header file is @gmp@.
    2648 Figure~\ref{f:GMPInterface} shows a multiprecision factorial program contrasting the GMP interface in \CFA and C.
    2649 
    2650 \begin{figure}[b]
     2601\CFA has an interface to the GMP multi-precision signed-integers~\cite{GMP}, similar to the \CC interface provided by GMP.
     2602The \CFA interface wraps GMP functions into operator functions to make programming with multi-precision integers identical to using fixed-sized integers.
     2603The \CFA type name for multi-precision signed-integers is @Int@ and the header file is @gmp@.
     2604Figure~\ref{f:GMPInterface} shows a multi-precision factorial-program contrasting the GMP interface in \CFA and C.
     2605
     2606\begin{figure}
    26512607\centering
    2652 \fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont
    26532608\lstDeleteShortInline@%
    26542609\begin{tabular}{@{}l@{\hspace{3\parindentlnth}}l@{}}
     
    26812636\end{tabular}
    26822637\lstMakeShortInline@%
    2683 \caption{GMP interface \CFA versus C}
     2638\caption{GMP Interface \CFA versus C}
    26842639\label{f:GMPInterface}
    26852640\end{figure}
    26862641
    26872642
    2688 \vspace{-4pt}
    26892643\section{Polymorphism Evaluation}
    26902644\label{sec:eval}
     
    26952649% Though \CFA provides significant added functionality over C, these features have a low runtime penalty.
    26962650% In fact, it is shown that \CFA's generic programming can enable faster runtime execution than idiomatic @void *@-based C code.
    2697 The experiment is a set of generic-stack microbenchmarks~\cite{CFAStackEvaluation} in C, \CFA, and \CC (see implementations in Appendix~\ref{sec:BenchmarkStackImplementations}).
     2651The experiment is a set of generic-stack micro-benchmarks~\cite{CFAStackEvaluation} in C, \CFA, and \CC (see implementations in Appendix~\ref{sec:BenchmarkStackImplementations}).
    26982652Since all these languages share a subset essentially comprising standard C, maximal-performance benchmarks should show little runtime variance, differing only in length and clarity of source code.
    26992653A more illustrative comparison measures the costs of idiomatic usage of each language's features.
    2700 Figure~\ref{fig:BenchmarkTest} shows the \CFA benchmark tests for a generic stack based on a singly linked list.
     2654Figure~\ref{fig:BenchmarkTest} shows the \CFA benchmark tests for a generic stack based on a singly linked-list.
    27012655The benchmark test is similar for the other languages.
    27022656The experiment uses element types @int@ and @pair(short, char)@, and pushes $N=40M$ elements on a generic stack, copies the stack, clears one of the stacks, and finds the maximum value in the other stack.
    27032657
    27042658\begin{figure}
    2705 \fontsize{9bp}{11bp}\selectfont
    27062659\begin{cfa}[xleftmargin=3\parindentlnth,aboveskip=0pt,belowskip=0pt]
    27072660int main() {
     
    27232676}
    27242677\end{cfa}
    2725 \caption{\protect\CFA benchmark test}
     2678\caption{\protect\CFA Benchmark Test}
    27262679\label{fig:BenchmarkTest}
    2727 \vspace*{-10pt}
    27282680\end{figure}
    27292681
    2730 The structure of each benchmark implemented is C with @void *@-based polymorphism, \CFA with parametric polymorphism, \CC with templates, and \CC using only class inheritance for polymorphism, called \CCV.
     2682The structure of each benchmark implemented is: C with @void *@-based polymorphism, \CFA with parametric polymorphism, \CC with templates, and \CC using only class inheritance for polymorphism, called \CCV.
    27312683The \CCV variant illustrates an alternative object-oriented idiom where all objects inherit from a base @object@ class, mimicking a Java-like interface;
    2732 hence, runtime checks are necessary to safely downcast objects.
    2733 The most notable difference among the implementations is in memory layout of generic types: \CFA and \CC inline the stack and pair elements into corresponding list and pair nodes, whereas C and \CCV lack such capability and, instead, must store generic objects via pointers to separately allocated objects.
    2734 Note that the C benchmark uses unchecked casts as C has no runtime mechanism to perform such checks, whereas \CFA and \CC provide type safety statically.
     2684hence runtime checks are necessary to safely down-cast objects.
     2685The most notable difference among the implementations is in memory layout of generic types: \CFA and \CC inline the stack and pair elements into corresponding list and pair nodes, while C and \CCV lack such a capability and instead must store generic objects via pointers to separately-allocated objects.
     2686Note, the C benchmark uses unchecked casts as C has no runtime mechanism to perform such checks, while \CFA and \CC provide type-safety statically.
    27352687
    27362688Figure~\ref{fig:eval} and Table~\ref{tab:eval} show the results of running the benchmark in Figure~\ref{fig:BenchmarkTest} and its C, \CC, and \CCV equivalents.
    2737 The graph plots the median of five consecutive runs of each program, with an initial warm-up run omitted.
     2689The graph plots the median of 5 consecutive runs of each program, with an initial warm-up run omitted.
    27382690All code is compiled at \texttt{-O2} by gcc or g++ 6.4.0, with all \CC code compiled as \CCfourteen.
    27392691The benchmarks are run on an Ubuntu 16.04 workstation with 16 GB of RAM and a 6-core AMD FX-6300 CPU with 3.5 GHz maximum clock frequency.
     
    27412693\begin{figure}
    27422694\centering
    2743 \resizebox{0.7\textwidth}{!}{\input{timing}}
    2744 \caption{Benchmark timing results (smaller is better)}
     2695\input{timing}
     2696\caption{Benchmark Timing Results (smaller is better)}
    27452697\label{fig:eval}
    2746 \vspace*{-10pt}
    27472698\end{figure}
    27482699
    27492700\begin{table}
    2750 \vspace*{-10pt}
    27512701\caption{Properties of benchmark code}
    27522702\label{tab:eval}
    27532703\centering
    2754 \vspace*{-4pt}
    27552704\newcommand{\CT}[1]{\multicolumn{1}{c}{#1}}
    2756 \begin{tabular}{lrrrr}
    2757                                                                         & \CT{C}        & \CT{\CFA}     & \CT{\CC}      & \CT{\CCV}             \\
    2758 maximum memory usage (MB)                       & 10\,001       & 2\,502        & 2\,503        & 11\,253               \\
     2705\begin{tabular}{rrrrr}
     2706                                                                        & \CT{C}        & \CT{\CFA}     & \CT{\CC}      & \CT{\CCV}             \\ \hline
     2707maximum memory usage (MB)                       & 10,001        & 2,502         & 2,503         & 11,253                \\
    27592708source code size (lines)                        & 201           & 191           & 125           & 294                   \\
    27602709redundant type annotations (lines)      & 27            & 0                     & 2                     & 16                    \\
    27612710binary size (KB)                                        & 14            & 257           & 14            & 37                    \\
    27622711\end{tabular}
    2763 \vspace*{-16pt}
    27642712\end{table}
    27652713
    2766 \enlargethispage{-10pt}
    2767 The C and \CCV variants are generally the slowest with the largest memory footprint, due to their less-efficient memory layout and the pointer indirection necessary to implement generic types;
     2714The C and \CCV variants are generally the slowest with the largest memory footprint, because of their less-efficient memory layout and the pointer-indirection necessary to implement generic types;
    27682715this inefficiency is exacerbated by the second level of generic types in the pair benchmarks.
    2769 By contrast, the \CFA and \CC variants run in roughly equivalent time for both the integer and pair because of the equivalent storage layout, with the inlined libraries (\ie no separate compilation) and greater maturity of the \CC compiler contributing to its lead.
    2770 \CCV is slower than C largely due to the cost of runtime type checking of downcasts (implemented with @dynamic_cast@).
     2716By contrast, the \CFA and \CC variants run in roughly equivalent time for both the integer and pair because of equivalent storage layout, with the inlined libraries (\ie no separate compilation) and greater maturity of the \CC compiler contributing to its lead.
     2717\CCV is slower than C largely due to the cost of runtime type-checking of down-casts (implemented with @dynamic_cast@);
    27712718The outlier for \CFA, pop @pair@, results from the complexity of the generated-C polymorphic code.
    27722719The gcc compiler is unable to optimize some dead code and condense nested calls;
     
    27742721Finally, the binary size for \CFA is larger because of static linking with the \CFA libraries.
    27752722
    2776 \CFA is also competitive in terms of source code size, measured as a proxy for programmer effort. The line counts in Table~\ref{tab:eval} include implementations of @pair@ and @stack@ types for all four languages for purposes of direct comparison, although it should be noted that \CFA and \CC have prewritten data structures in their standard libraries that programmers would generally use instead. Use of these standard library types has minimal impact on the performance benchmarks, but shrinks the \CFA and \CC benchmarks to 39 and 42 lines, respectively.
     2723\CFA is also competitive in terms of source code size, measured as a proxy for programmer effort. The line counts in Table~\ref{tab:eval} include implementations of @pair@ and @stack@ types for all four languages for purposes of direct comparison, though it should be noted that \CFA and \CC have pre-written data structures in their standard libraries that programmers would generally use instead. Use of these standard library types has minimal impact on the performance benchmarks, but shrinks the \CFA and \CC benchmarks to 39 and 42 lines, respectively.
    27772724The difference between the \CFA and \CC line counts is primarily declaration duplication to implement separate compilation; a header-only \CFA library would be similar in length to the \CC version.
    2778 On the other hand, C does not have a generic collections library in its standard distribution, resulting in frequent reimplementation of such collection types by C programmers.
    2779 \CCV does not use the \CC standard template library by construction and, in fact, includes the definition of @object@ and wrapper classes for @char@, @short@, and @int@ in its line count, which inflates this count somewhat, as an actual object-oriented language would include these in the standard library;
     2725On the other hand, C does not have a generic collections-library in its standard distribution, resulting in frequent reimplementation of such collection types by C programmers.
     2726\CCV does not use the \CC standard template library by construction, and in fact includes the definition of @object@ and wrapper classes for @char@, @short@, and @int@ in its line count, which inflates this count somewhat, as an actual object-oriented language would include these in the standard library;
    27802727with their omission, the \CCV line count is similar to C.
    27812728We justify the given line count by noting that many object-oriented languages do not allow implementing new interfaces on library types without subclassing or wrapper types, which may be similarly verbose.
    27822729
    2783 Line count is a fairly rough measure of code complexity;
    2784 another important factor is how much type information the programmer must specify manually, especially where that information is not compiler checked.
    2785 Such unchecked type information produces a heavier documentation burden and increased potential for runtime bugs and is much less common in \CFA than C, with its manually specified function pointer arguments and format codes, or \CCV, with its extensive use of un-type-checked downcasts, \eg @object@ to @integer@ when popping a stack.
     2730Line-count is a fairly rough measure of code complexity;
     2731another important factor is how much type information the programmer must specify manually, especially where that information is not compiler-checked.
     2732Such unchecked type information produces a heavier documentation burden and increased potential for runtime bugs, and is much less common in \CFA than C, with its manually specified function pointer arguments and format codes, or \CCV, with its extensive use of un-type-checked downcasts, \eg @object@ to @integer@ when popping a stack.
    27862733To quantify this manual typing, the ``redundant type annotations'' line in Table~\ref{tab:eval} counts the number of lines on which the type of a known variable is respecified, either as a format specifier, explicit downcast, type-specific function, or by name in a @sizeof@, struct literal, or @new@ expression.
    2787 The \CC benchmark uses two redundant type annotations to create a new stack nodes, whereas the C and \CCV benchmarks have several such annotations spread throughout their code.
     2734The \CC benchmark uses two redundant type annotations to create a new stack nodes, while the C and \CCV benchmarks have several such annotations spread throughout their code.
    27882735The \CFA benchmark is able to eliminate all redundant type annotations through use of the polymorphic @alloc@ function discussed in Section~\ref{sec:libraries}.
    27892736
    2790 We conjecture that these results scale across most generic data types as the underlying polymorphism implement is constant.
    2791 
    2792 
    2793 \vspace*{-8pt}
     2737We conjecture these results scale across most generic data-types as the underlying polymorphism implement is constant.
     2738
     2739
    27942740\section{Related Work}
    27952741\label{s:RelatedWork}
     
    28072753\CC provides three disjoint polymorphic extensions to C: overloading, inheritance, and templates.
    28082754The overloading is restricted because resolution does not use the return type, inheritance requires learning object-oriented programming and coping with a restricted nominal-inheritance hierarchy, templates cannot be separately compiled resulting in compilation/code bloat and poor error messages, and determining how these mechanisms interact and which to use is confusing.
    2809 In contrast, \CFA has a single facility for polymorphic code supporting type-safe separate compilation of polymorphic functions and generic (opaque) types, which uniformly leverage the C procedural paradigm.
     2755In contrast, \CFA has a single facility for polymorphic code supporting type-safe separate-compilation of polymorphic functions and generic (opaque) types, which uniformly leverage the C procedural paradigm.
    28102756The key mechanism to support separate compilation is \CFA's \emph{explicit} use of assumed type properties.
    2811 Until \CC concepts~\cite{C++Concepts} are standardized (anticipated for \CCtwenty), \CC provides no way of specifying the requirements of a generic function beyond compilation errors during template expansion;
     2757Until \CC concepts~\cite{C++Concepts} are standardized (anticipated for \CCtwenty), \CC provides no way to specify the requirements of a generic function beyond compilation errors during template expansion;
    28122758furthermore, \CC concepts are restricted to template polymorphism.
    28132759
    28142760Cyclone~\cite{Grossman06} also provides capabilities for polymorphic functions and existential types, similar to \CFA's @forall@ functions and generic types.
    2815 Cyclone existential types can include function pointers in a construct similar to a virtual function table, but these pointers must be explicitly initialized at some point in the code, which is a tedious and potentially error-prone process.
     2761Cyclone existential types can include function pointers in a construct similar to a virtual function-table, but these pointers must be explicitly initialized at some point in the code, a tedious and potentially error-prone process.
    28162762Furthermore, Cyclone's polymorphic functions and types are restricted to abstraction over types with the same layout and calling convention as @void *@, \ie only pointer types and @int@.
    28172763In \CFA terms, all Cyclone polymorphism must be dtype-static.
    28182764While the Cyclone design provides the efficiency benefits discussed in Section~\ref{sec:generic-apps} for dtype-static polymorphism, it is more restrictive than \CFA's general model.
    2819 Smith and Volpano~\cite{Smith98} present Polymorphic C, an ML dialect with polymorphic functions, C-like syntax, and pointer types;
    2820 it lacks many of C's features, most notably structure types, and hence, is not a practical C replacement.
     2765Smith and Volpano~\cite{Smith98} present Polymorphic C, an ML dialect with polymorphic functions, C-like syntax, and pointer types; it lacks many of C's features, however, most notably structure types, and so is not a practical C replacement.
    28212766
    28222767Objective-C~\cite{obj-c-book} is an industrially successful extension to C.
    2823 However, Objective-C is a radical departure from C, using an object-oriented model with message passing.
     2768However, Objective-C is a radical departure from C, using an object-oriented model with message-passing.
    28242769Objective-C did not support type-checked generics until recently \cite{xcode7}, historically using less-efficient runtime checking of object types.
    2825 The GObject~\cite{GObject} framework also adds object-oriented programming with runtime type-checking and reference-counting garbage collection to C;
    2826 these features are more intrusive additions than those provided by \CFA, in addition to the runtime overhead of reference counting.
    2827 Vala~\cite{Vala} compiles to GObject-based C, adding the burden of learning a separate language syntax to the aforementioned demerits of GObject as a modernization path for existing C code bases.
    2828 Java~\cite{Java8} included generic types in Java~5, which are type checked at compilation and type erased at runtime, similar to \CFA's.
    2829 However, in Java, each object carries its own table of method pointers, whereas \CFA passes the method pointers separately to maintain a C-compatible layout.
     2770The GObject~\cite{GObject} framework also adds object-oriented programming with runtime type-checking and reference-counting garbage-collection to C;
     2771these features are more intrusive additions than those provided by \CFA, in addition to the runtime overhead of reference-counting.
     2772Vala~\cite{Vala} compiles to GObject-based C, adding the burden of learning a separate language syntax to the aforementioned demerits of GObject as a modernization path for existing C code-bases.
     2773Java~\cite{Java8} included generic types in Java~5, which are type-checked at compilation and type-erased at runtime, similar to \CFA's.
     2774However, in Java, each object carries its own table of method pointers, while \CFA passes the method pointers separately to maintain a C-compatible layout.
    28302775Java is also a garbage-collected, object-oriented language, with the associated resource usage and C-interoperability burdens.
    28312776
    2832 D~\cite{D}, Go, and Rust~\cite{Rust} are modern compiled languages with abstraction features similar to \CFA traits, \emph{interfaces} in D and Go, and \emph{traits} in Rust.
     2777D~\cite{D}, Go, and Rust~\cite{Rust} are modern, compiled languages with abstraction features similar to \CFA traits, \emph{interfaces} in D and Go and \emph{traits} in Rust.
    28332778However, each language represents a significant departure from C in terms of language model, and none has the same level of compatibility with C as \CFA.
    28342779D and Go are garbage-collected languages, imposing the associated runtime overhead.
    28352780The necessity of accounting for data transfer between managed runtimes and the unmanaged C runtime complicates foreign-function interfaces to C.
    28362781Furthermore, while generic types and functions are available in Go, they are limited to a small fixed set provided by the compiler, with no language facility to define more.
    2837 D restricts garbage collection to its own heap by default, whereas Rust is not garbage collected and, thus, has a lighter-weight runtime more interoperable with C.
     2782D restricts garbage collection to its own heap by default, while Rust is not garbage-collected, and thus has a lighter-weight runtime more interoperable with C.
    28382783Rust also possesses much more powerful abstraction capabilities for writing generic code than Go.
    2839 On the other hand, Rust's borrow checker provides strong safety guarantees but is complex and difficult to learn and imposes a distinctly idiomatic programming style.
     2784On the other hand, Rust's borrow-checker provides strong safety guarantees but is complex and difficult to learn and imposes a distinctly idiomatic programming style.
    28402785\CFA, with its more modest safety features, allows direct ports of C code while maintaining the idiomatic style of the original source.
    28412786
    28422787
    2843 \vspace*{-18pt}
    2844 \subsection{Tuples/variadics}
    2845 
    2846 \vspace*{-5pt}
     2788\subsection{Tuples/Variadics}
     2789
    28472790Many programming languages have some form of tuple construct and/or variadic functions, \eg SETL, C, KW-C, \CC, D, Go, Java, ML, and Scala.
    28482791SETL~\cite{SETL} is a high-level mathematical programming language, with tuples being one of the primary data types.
    28492792Tuples in SETL allow subscripting, dynamic expansion, and multiple assignment.
    2850 C provides variadic functions through @va_list@ objects, but the programmer is responsible for managing the number of arguments and their types;
    2851 thus, the mechanism is type unsafe.
     2793C provides variadic functions through @va_list@ objects, but the programmer is responsible for managing the number of arguments and their types, so the mechanism is type unsafe.
    28522794KW-C~\cite{Buhr94a}, a predecessor of \CFA, introduced tuples to C as an extension of the C syntax, taking much of its inspiration from SETL.
    28532795The main contributions of that work were adding MRVF, tuple mass and multiple assignment, and record-member access.
    2854 \CCeleven introduced @std::tuple@ as a library variadic-template structure.
     2796\CCeleven introduced @std::tuple@ as a library variadic template structure.
    28552797Tuples are a generalization of @std::pair@, in that they allow for arbitrary length, fixed-size aggregation of heterogeneous values.
    28562798Operations include @std::get<N>@ to extract values, @std::tie@ to create a tuple of references used for assignment, and lexicographic comparisons.
    2857 \CCseventeen proposes \emph{structured bindings}~\cite{Sutter15} to eliminate predeclaring variables and the use of @std::tie@ for binding the results.
    2858 This extension requires the use of @auto@ to infer the types of the new variables; hence, complicated expressions with a nonobvious type must be documented with some other mechanism.
     2799\CCseventeen proposes \emph{structured bindings}~\cite{Sutter15} to eliminate pre-declaring variables and use of @std::tie@ for binding the results.
     2800This extension requires the use of @auto@ to infer the types of the new variables, so complicated expressions with a non-obvious type must be documented with some other mechanism.
    28592801Furthermore, structured bindings are not a full replacement for @std::tie@, as it always declares new variables.
    28602802Like \CC, D provides tuples through a library variadic-template structure.
    28612803Go does not have tuples but supports MRVF.
    2862 Java's variadic functions appear similar to C's but are type safe using homogeneous arrays, which are less useful than \CFA's heterogeneously typed variadic functions.
     2804Java's variadic functions appear similar to C's but are type-safe using homogeneous arrays, which are less useful than \CFA's heterogeneously-typed variadic functions.
    28632805Tuples are a fundamental abstraction in most functional programming languages, such as Standard ML~\cite{sml}, Haskell, and Scala~\cite{Scala}, which decompose tuples using pattern matching.
    28642806
    28652807
    2866 \vspace*{-18pt}
    28672808\subsection{C Extensions}
    28682809
    2869 \vspace*{-5pt}
    2870 \CC is the best known C-based language and is similar to \CFA in that both are extensions to C with source and runtime backward compatibility.
    2871 Specific differences between \CFA and \CC have been identified in prior sections, with a final observation that \CFA has equal or fewer tokens to express the same notion in many cases.
     2810\CC is the best known C-based language, and is similar to \CFA in that both are extensions to C with source and runtime backwards compatibility.
     2811Specific difference between \CFA and \CC have been identified in prior sections, with a final observation that \CFA has equal or fewer tokens to express the same notion in many cases.
    28722812The key difference in design philosophies is that \CFA is easier for C programmers to understand by maintaining a procedural paradigm and avoiding complex interactions among extensions.
    28732813\CC, on the other hand, has multiple overlapping features (such as the three forms of polymorphism), many of which have complex interactions with its object-oriented design.
    2874 As a result, \CC has a steep learning curve for even experienced C programmers, especially when attempting to maintain performance equivalent to C legacy code.
    2875 
    2876 There are several other C extension languages with less usage and even more dramatic changes than \CC.
    2877 \mbox{Objective-C} and Cyclone are two other extensions to C with different design goals than \CFA, as discussed above.
     2814As a result, \CC has a steep learning curve for even experienced C programmers, especially when attempting to maintain performance equivalent to C legacy-code.
     2815
     2816There are several other C extension-languages with less usage and even more dramatic changes than \CC.
     2817Objective-C and Cyclone are two other extensions to C with different design goals than \CFA, as discussed above.
    28782818Other languages extend C with more focused features.
    28792819$\mu$\CC~\cite{uC++book}, CUDA~\cite{Nickolls08}, ispc~\cite{Pharr12}, and Sierra~\cite{Leissa14} add concurrent or data-parallel primitives to C or \CC;
    2880 data-parallel features have not yet been added to \CFA, but are easily incorporated within its design, whereas concurrency primitives similar to those in $\mu$\CC have already been added~\cite{Delisle18}.
    2881 Finally, CCured~\cite{Necula02} and Ironclad \CC~\cite{DeLozier13} attempt to provide a more memory-safe C by annotating pointer types with garbage collection information; type-checked polymorphism in \CFA covers several of C's memory-safety issues, but more aggressive approaches such as annotating all pointer types with their nullability or requiring runtime garbage collection are contradictory to \CFA's backward compatibility goals.
     2820data-parallel features have not yet been added to \CFA, but are easily incorporated within its design, while concurrency primitives similar to those in $\mu$\CC have already been added~\cite{Delisle18}.
     2821Finally, CCured~\cite{Necula02} and Ironclad \CC~\cite{DeLozier13} attempt to provide a more memory-safe C by annotating pointer types with garbage collection information; type-checked polymorphism in \CFA covers several of C's memory-safety issues, but more aggressive approaches such as annotating all pointer types with their nullability or requiring runtime garbage collection are contradictory to \CFA's backwards compatibility goals.
    28822822
    28832823
    28842824\section{Conclusion and Future Work}
    28852825
    2886 The goal of \CFA is to provide an evolutionary pathway for large C development environments to be more productive and safer, while respecting the talent and skill of C programmers.
    2887 While other programming languages purport to be a better C, they are, in fact, new and interesting languages in their own right, but not C extensions.
    2888 The purpose of this paper is to introduce \CFA, and showcase language features that illustrate the \CFA type system and approaches taken to achieve the goal of evolutionary C extension.
    2889 The contributions are a powerful type system using parametric polymorphism and overloading, generic types, tuples, advanced control structures, and extended declarations, which all have complex interactions.
     2826The goal of \CFA is to provide an evolutionary pathway for large C development-environments to be more productive and safer, while respecting the talent and skill of C programmers.
     2827While other programming languages purport to be a better C, they are in fact new and interesting languages in their own right, but not C extensions.
     2828The purpose of this paper is to introduce \CFA, and showcase language features that illustrate the \CFA type-system and approaches taken to achieve the goal of evolutionary C extension.
     2829The contributions are a powerful type-system using parametric polymorphism and overloading, generic types, tuples, advanced control structures, and extended declarations, which all have complex interactions.
    28902830The work is a challenging design, engineering, and implementation exercise.
    28912831On the surface, the project may appear as a rehash of similar mechanisms in \CC.
    28922832However, every \CFA feature is different than its \CC counterpart, often with extended functionality, better integration with C and its programmers, and always supporting separate compilation.
    2893 All of these new features are being used by the \CFA development team to build the \CFA runtime system.
     2833All of these new features are being used by the \CFA development-team to build the \CFA runtime-system.
    28942834Finally, we demonstrate that \CFA performance for some idiomatic cases is better than C and close to \CC, showing the design is practically applicable.
    28952835
    2896 While all examples in the paper compile and run, there are ongoing efforts to reduce compilation time, provide better debugging, and add more libraries;
    2897 when this work is complete in early 2019, a public beta release will be available at \url{https://github.com/cforall/cforall}.
    2898 There is also new work on a number of \CFA features, including arrays with size, runtime type information, virtual functions, user-defined conversions, and modules.
    2899 While \CFA polymorphic functions use dynamic virtual dispatch with low runtime overhead (see Section~\ref{sec:eval}), it is not as low as \CC template inlining.
    2900 Hence, it may be beneficial to provide a mechanism for performance-sensitive code.
    2901 Two promising approaches are an @inline@ annotation at polymorphic function call sites to create a template specialization of the function (provided the code is visible) or placing an @inline@ annotation on polymorphic function definitions to instantiate a specialized version for some set of types (\CC template specialization).
    2902  These approaches are not mutually exclusive and allow performance optimizations to be applied only when necessary, without suffering global code bloat.
    2903 In general, we believe separate compilation, producing smaller code, works well with loaded hardware caches, which may offset the benefit of larger inlined code.
     2836While all examples in the paper compile and run, a public beta-release of \CFA will take 6--8 months to reduce compilation time, provide better debugging, and add a few more libraries.
     2837There is also new work on a number of \CFA features, including arrays with size, runtime type-information, virtual functions, user-defined conversions, and modules.
     2838While \CFA polymorphic functions use dynamic virtual-dispatch with low runtime overhead (see Section~\ref{sec:eval}), it is not as low as \CC template-inlining.
     2839Hence it may be beneficial to provide a mechanism for performance-sensitive code.
     2840Two promising approaches are an @inline@ annotation at polymorphic function call sites to create a template-specialization of the function (provided the code is visible) or placing an @inline@ annotation on polymorphic function-definitions to instantiate a specialized version for some set of types (\CC template specialization).
     2841These approaches are not mutually exclusive and allow performance optimizations to be applied only when necessary, without suffering global code-bloat.
     2842In general, we believe separate compilation, producing smaller code, works well with loaded hardware-caches, which may offset the benefit of larger inlined-code.
    29042843
    29052844
    29062845\section{Acknowledgments}
    29072846
    2908 The authors would like to recognize the design assistance of Glen Ditchfield, Richard Bilson, Thierry Delisle, Andrew Beach, and Brice Dobry on the features described in this paper and thank Magnus Madsen for feedback on the writing.
    2909 Funding for this project was provided by Huawei Ltd (\url{http://www.huawei.com}), and Aaron Moss and Peter Buhr were partially funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
     2847The authors would like to recognize the design assistance of Glen Ditchfield, Richard Bilson, Thierry Delisle, Andrew Beach and Brice Dobry on the features described in this paper, and thank Magnus Madsen for feedback on the writing.
     2848Funding for this project has been provided by Huawei Ltd.\ (\url{http://www.huawei.com}), and Aaron Moss and Peter Buhr are partially funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
    29102849
    29112850{%
    29122851\fontsize{9bp}{12bp}\selectfont%
    2913 \vspace*{-3pt}
    29142852\bibliography{pl}
    29152853}%
     
    29902928
    29912929
    2992 \enlargethispage{1000pt}
    29932930\subsection{\CFA}
    29942931\label{s:CforallStack}
     
    30572994
    30582995
    3059 \newpage
    30602996\subsection{\CC}
    30612997
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