MSc thesis of Niki Vazou
LiquidHaskell : Liquid Types for Haskell
Supervisor: Nikolaos S. Papaspyrou
Even well-typed programs can go wrong, by returning a wrong answer or throwing a run-time error. A popular response is to allow programmers use refinement type systems to express semantic specifica- tions about programs. We study verification in such systems. On the one hand, expressive refinement type systems require run-time checks or explicit proofs to verify specifications. On the other, less ex- pressive type systems allow static and automatic proofs of the specifications. Next, we present abstract refinement types, a means to enhance the expressiveness of a refinement type system without increas- ing its complexity. Then, we present LiquidHaskell that combines liquidTypes with abstraction over refinements to enhance expressiveness of LiquidTypes. LiquidHaskell is a quite expressive verifica- tion tool for Haskell programs that can be used to check termination, totality and general functional correctness. Finally, we evaluate LiquidHaskell in real world Haskell libraries.
Defended: April 3, 2015.