Language-Independent Type-Dependent Name Resolution

Abstract

We extend and combine two existing declarative formalisms, the scope graphs of Neron et al. and type constraint systems, to build a language-independent theory that can describe both name and type resolution for realistic languages with complex scope and typing rules. Unlike conventional static semantics presentations, our approach maintains a clear separation between scoping and typing concerns, while still being able to handle language constructs, such as class field access, for which name and type resolution are necessarily intertwined. We define a constraint scheme that can express both typing and name binding constraints, and give a formal notion of constraint satisfiability together with a sound algorithm for finding solutions in important special cases. We describe the details of constraint generation for a model language that illustrates many of the interesting resolution issues associated with modules, classes, and records. Our constraint generator and solver have been implemented in the Spoofax Language Workbench.