On the Meaning of Names in Programming Systems

Abstract

It is assumed that there is a similarity of function between the data names of a programming language and the file names of an operating system. The two functions are discussed in terms of the same basic concepts in order to identify the extent to which they overlap. It is suggested that there is some similarity between the idea of a file directory and a storable object of type context. Manipulations with contexts are then discussed at length. It is noted that there is a simple extension of Church's λ notation that deals nicely with these ideas of context manipulation. Whereas a function can be regarded as the abstraction based upon the first two terms of the expression λ(namelist)(expression)(valuelist), it is found that a context can be viewed as an abstraction based upon the first two terms in the equivalent expression μ(namelist)(valuelist)(expression). © 1971, ACM. All rights reserved.