We describe a new approach to domain specific languages (DSLs), called Quoted DSLs (QDSLs), that resurrects two old ideas: quotation, from McCarthy's Lisp of 1960, and the subformula property, from Gentzen's natural deduction of 1935. Quoted terms allow the DSL to share the syntax and type system of the host language. Normalising quoted terms ensures the subformula property, which guarantees that one can use higher-order types in the source while guaranteeing first-order types in the target, and enables using types to guide fusion. We test our ideas by re-implementing Feldspar, which was originally implemented as an Embedded DSL (EDSL), as a QDSL; and we compare the QDSL and EDSL variants.
Language-integrated query is receiving renewed attention, in part because of its support through Microsoft's LINQ framework. We present a theory of language-integrated query based on quotation and normalisation of quoted terms. Our technique supports abstraction over values and predicates, composition of queries, dynamic generation of queries, and queries with nested intermediate data. Higher-order features prove useful even for constructing first-order queries. We prove that normalisation always succeeds in translating any query of flat relation type to SQL. We present experimental results confirming our technique works, even in situations where Microsoft's LINQ framework either fails to produce an SQL query or, in one case, produces an avalanche of SQL queries.
Earlier versions of this paper were named "The essence of language-integrated query"
