# The tension between values and computation §

Programming arises admist the tension between values and computation, data and behavior, representation and work, doing and being. Focusing on either one to the exclusion of the other fails, as does attempting to blur the lines between them.

Fortunately, there are ways to bring that tenion into focus and see how it plays out. Doing so can create a lot of clarity about design decisions present in langauges and their programs. It arms you with an analytical tool for simplifying code.

In this article we will study Paul Blain Levy's call-by-push-value calculus, a foundational programing language that gives precise meaning and separation between computation and value. We'll also relate it to tensions that exist in other programming languages and note how they have attempted to "solve" these tensions using more precise language afforded by CBPV.

## Values and computation §

Values, or data, are concrete, materialized things defined by how they are constructed and consumed by deconstruction. They are inherently finite and transparent.

Values themselves are incredibly rich. It's probably not wrong to say that most of mathematics is built on language that struggles to consider a world of only values. This is the reason mathematicians prefer total functions, assume termination, refute things as undefined as opposed to dealing with them when they fail. It's the reason programmers often dismiss mathematical thought as impractical, but this doesn't prevent mathematics from saying amazingly rich things.

Computation is also incredibly rich, but it is more difficult to imagine. Computation is defined by its elimination, what happens when you feed it different signals. It need not be finite, though it will only ever be finitely observed.

Computation without data is action without language. Perhaps, the neural net which provides answers to questions but is totally inscrutible. The control system that keeps a rocket flying true via continuous adjustment. It's hard for us to even see these as truely computation alone, though. We seek to qualify the messages and inputs sent to each system in order to analyze its behavior, and those messages are inherently data.

So more typically, we think of computation as a black box consuming data and emitting it. It is an action, a behavior, inherently dynamic and inherently opaque.

## Getting concrete §

Data is defined by its construction. So, we can build a data list by showing its construction

data list is
nil : list
cons : int -> list -> list

a-list : list
a-list = cons 1 (cons 2 (cons 3 nil))


Computation is defined by its response to prodding, so we define a computation stream by defining its behavior.

computation stream is
pop : stream -> int * stream

counter : int -> stream
pop (counter n) = (n, counter (n + 1))


Sometimes we encode computations-as-values by embedding functions inside of our data. Sometimes we encode data-as-computation by letting the computation respond to messages so as to feign a finite nature. Both of these encodings try to wash away the fact that programming arises as the tension between these two ideas.

So let's explore call-by-push-value which instead chooses to highlight their differences.

## Call by push value §

The key thing in CBPV is that we have values and computations as separate, yet interwoven, modalities in the language.

• We suspend a computation into a value explicitly by calling thunk,
• we invoke a suspended computation by forceing it (and applying args, if it needs them)
• a computation returns a value with return, and
• a computation receives a value from another computation by binding it with the phrase c1 to x in E.

Functions are a bit more complex, but we can see them as value-like or computation-like essentially by whether they're pure or not. We'll get into that more in a minute, but it suffices to say a function can be made impure even by effects as pervasive as non-termination. Our value-like functions are incredibly weak.

-- let's call this a pure function since it has clearly terminating recursion
add = pure n m ->
case n of
0      -> m
Suc n' -> add n' (Suc m)

-- but we need to thunk this one, since it's not obvious that it terminates
collatz = thunk fn n ->
case n of
0 -> return 1
1 -> return 1
n -> if isEven n
then force div n 2 to n'
in force collatz n'
else force collatz (add (times n 3) 1)


Above we witness decomposition of natural number values using pattern matching on Suc, the application of pure functions like isEven, add, and times. We also see an explicit call to a computation div with all of the ceremony it entails (force and _ to _ in _). It's easy to design syntaxes to hide this ceremony, but we'll leave it now as its explicitness is helpful.

On purity

"Purity" is a tricky concept to nail down. You could call it computation in the absense of side effects, but then "side effect" is tricky to nail down.

For purposes here, though, the nature of values give us a bright line. Any expression made from values, fully-saturated value constructors (like cons x y) and value-like functions must (in principle) represent exactly one "canonical form" of a value. If we were being really technical we'd define all of the canonical forms for each data type, but for now this just means that any "value-like computation" is completely boring and proceeds from inputs to outputs directly and transparently.

For this reason, it's actually quite reasonable to let implementations calculate values lazily as all of this work must be transparent.

## Types in CBPV §

Call-by-push-value also has a type system to help keep the worlds of values and computation separate. Some types are "value types" and some are "computation types" and the markers F and U help us discuss how thunk, force, return, and _ to _ in _ embed one world into the other.

We'll write a : A to indicate that a is a value of value-type A and c » C to indicate c is a computation of computation type C.

So now we have rules for how return and thunk introduce F and U

• a : A implies return a » F A where F embeds value types into computation types
• c » C implies thunk c : U C where U embeds computation types into value types

and also rules for how force and _ to _ in _ eliminate them

• f : U C implies force f » C
• if m » F A and k » B with a free variable x : A, then m to x in k » B

The typing rules enforce our understanding of how these 4 operations interact and define strictly how the worlds of values and computations interleave and combine.

With these in place, we can give types to our functions above:

add : Nat ~> Nat ~> Nat
collatz : U (Nat -> F Nat)


where we use ~> to indicate pure functions and -> to represent general functions. In this case, f : A ~> B if A and B are value types and g » A -> C if A is a value type and C a computation type.

This drives home how add and collatz are very different beasts. One is a curried pure function and the other a complex "general" function with exposed interactions between F and U.

isEven : Nat ~> Bool
times : Nat ~> Nat ~> Nat

div : U (Nat -> Nat -> F Nat)


Finally, we can state a very interesting property of this system: variables are only ever bound to value types. This again works with the intuition that variables are while computations do.

On pure functions again

One thing that you might ask is that if all values types have canonical forms then what is the canonical form of A ~> B?

And... that's a really good question that I'm just going to punt on. While there are some ways to answer it, my whole introduction of "pure" functions into this presentation is pretty much a hack.

## Relating to other languages §

Call-by-push-value is totally explicit about the distinction between data and computation, and therefore it gives us a language for exploring the design decisions of other languages or even particular patterns in those languages.

One of the most important design decisions in Haskell is its laziness---by default, all computation is done lazily.

On one hand, if we were to model that in CBPV we'd have to note that computation (action!) can happen absolutely anywhere and all the time. By this lens, Haskell biases very, very hard toward computation types. A standard Haskell arrow might be encoded like UA -> B in CBPV. This turns a fundamental principle of CBPV on its head: in Haskell, all variables bind computations instead.

But this view is somewhat out of alignment with how most Haskell programs are actually thought of. The best way to reason about pervasive laziness is not to admit it as an effect and treat all things as computation, but instead to note that the evaluation order of values doesn't much matter. Most of the time, you treat Haskell as if it were completely value-based with Haskell arrows corresponding to A ~> B and computation ordering largely ignored.

To this end, we have to model computations as values in Haskell. This is generally what monadic types P a are doing: representing computations as value-like syntax trees to be interpreted later. We can see IO a as U (F a), so that something like putStrLn has type String ~> U (F Unit).

Haskell's runtime system is the only place which has access to force and its able to interpret the IO type where arbitrary computation might be hidden.

### OCaml §

OCaml is a strict, data-oriented language. On its surface, you would expect that it'd be proper to model it just the same as Haskell. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

In particular, any given OCaml expression may be a computation. Once you actually bind a variable it is a value, of course, but every let x = f in E translates to f to x in E. OCaml arrows are thus described much like div was as U (A -> F B) for value types A and B.

OCaml order of execution is unspecified and therefore there isn't a standard translation into CBPV (where computations must be explicitly sequenced). If we assume right-to-left evaluation, then we can translate something like

(print "arg 2"; readInt) + (print "arg 1?"; readInt)


as

force print "arg 1?" to _ in
force print "arg 2?" to _ in
x + y


So, while Haskell actually works as computation everywhere, it makes you think that it's values everywhere and computation just in a few locations. On the other hand, OCaml actually just is computation everywhere.

### Java §

The key idea in Java (and other OO languages) is the object, a container holding both behavior and state. This is clearly a bundling of both data and computation together, though it is usually the case that data is difficult to access in Java.

The most obvious data available in Java are primitives and primitive arrays. Every other type dispatches through object and thus has behavior available, computation.

Perhaps the most glaring evidence of this is the ambient equals method available on all objects. Data can only be analyzed through examination of its structure, so "reference equality" implies computational structure. Even for Java classes which choose to implement some form of structural equality, this is being emulated by defining how objects behave when they interact with one another.

We can see classes as descriptions of computation types, listing out sets of messages the instance is sensitive to and the computation that results, in other words maps of symbolic names to arrows A -> B for value types A and computation types B.

I'm going to just ignore Java's upcoming Value Types extension. Presumably, it's being added because of pain caused by just how far Java goes to make values inaccessible.

Java practices do sometimes involve emulation of data using objects (POJOs, the visitor pattern), but these emulations always must go through interpretive steps to create the appearance of data. It's difficult to talk about values other than primitives.

That said, there is one other place where Java clearly represents data despite its desire to make everything an object. It's valuable to think of objects as being "prodded" by data as their input signals, and if you see method calls as message passing then you can witness this data. This is especially clear when using reflective interfaces where class names and method names become strings---data being passed around by the JVM continuously.

### Scala §

Finally, and most interestingly, we come to Scala which is designed as a fusion between "functional" and "object oriented". Here, we can read this as attempting to blur the lines between data-oriented programming and object/computation oriented programming.

Scala is clearly built atop Java and so if we look closely its easy to see that any pretense Scala has toward data-orientation is being emulated atop computation. But assuming you're willing to suspend disbelief a bit, Scala's case classes clearly are meant to represent data while classes retain their object-oriented computational roots.

Function types are OCaml-like U (A -> F B), but we can see that even more explicitly since they are just objects (computations) which respond to apply messages and input args ("apply", a: A) and subsequently return some output.

Additionally, like OCaml, a faithful translation of most Scala expressions involves the universal availability of effects.

In this sense, it's interesting that many Haskell practices have been adopted by Scala as opposed to more OCaml practices as it has a closer computational heritage.

### HTTP and REST §

And as a twist analysis, let's consider one of the most successful computation systems today. As is typical with distributed systems, the tension becomes incredibly straightforward as you cannot serialize computations, only concrete, finite values.

While any HTTP endpoint is obviously a computation, opaque and analyzed by its responses to various input signals, the various data interchange languages like XML and JSON are obviously data. This is the typical case with interacting computations---it's easier to analyze them if we see them as communicating with observable, structural data.

REST takes this a step further and constrains the computations to be largely about semi-transparent manipulation of known data. We expect various "endpoints" to have straightforward behavior with respect to manipulations of dependably available data. This is the sort of thing that brings data even more into the forefront of interacting with these systems and, e.g., compares interestingly with previous designs like RPC.

## Wrap up §

Programming arises admist the tension between values and computation. Once you get an eye for the distinction between these two, you start seeing them everywhere. Concepts like laziness and strictness, finite and infinite, side-effect and purity, transparent and opaque, serializability and native all start to be seen as consequences of this core tension.

Levy's call-by-push-value calculus intensifies the difference between the two and playing with it (and various extensions) can help to train your sense for how these two entities are distinct, and how they interact. For this reason, if no other, it's a valuable thing to understand (though it's also an interesting IR to consider during compilation).

Finally, and most importantly, this tension is the sort of thing that transcends fashions in programming practice or language design. The tension is not something that will go away so long as we endeavor to write interesting programs, so the various ways that languages handle it are worth understanding and contrasting.