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"A (Not So Gentle) Introduction To Systems Programming In ATS" by Aditya Siram

Strange Loop Conference · 25.6K views · 2017-09-30 · 36:58

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Overview

Aditya Siram introduces ATS, a statically typed ML-like language that compiles to C and offers type-safe pointer arithmetic and a full proof language. The Strange Loop talk shows off C interop, concurrency and verification features with non-trivial examples.

On Hacker News

Cited in Rust and systems-language threads as the best introduction to ATS, a language claimed to go beyond Rust's safety guarantees.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2017–2022

Topics

Programming language designLogic & formal methodsC, C++, Rust, Go & systems languages
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atssystems programmingdependent typesformal verificationstrange loop

What people said

rtfeldman · 2021-08 · Recommendation

Some entertaining talks introducing the language, by /u/deech: "A Tase Of ATS" at Compose Conf 2019: [LINK] "A (Not So Gentle) Introduction To Systems Programming In ATS" at Strange Loop 2017: [VIDEO]

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Athas · 2020-08 · Recommendation

Yes, ATS can guarantee all those things and more. In particular, ATS allows you to write "unsafe" code, which you then prove safe with a mechanically verified proof. This is in contrast to unsafe Rust, which depends on programmer discipline, and has no (intra-language) mechanism for verification beyond the basic type system. You could say that Rust is all-or-nothing, while ATS allows gradual verification, as well as proving safe much more complex code than you can in Rust. I'm not going to claim that ATS is overall better than Rust - it's not - but it's a far more powerful language than Rust for safe systems programming. It's just that most people are not willing or able to pay the very high price in ergonomics. I recommend watching this presentation for a good idea of what ATS programming is like: [VIDEO] In short, it's about as user-friendly as an overheating nuclear reactor.

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snaky · 2018-09 · Recommendation

If you are interesting in a programming language suitable for system level programming, and using proving techniques, maybe ATS would be of interest. [VIDEO] [LINK]

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Sources

Video by Strange Loop Conference, played through YouTube.

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