Abstract. We introduce an extension of lambda-calculus, called label-selective lambda-calculus, in which arguments of functions are selected by labels. The set of labels includes numeric postions as well as symbolic keywords. While the latter enjoy free commutation, the former must comply with relative precedence in order to preserve currying. This extension of lambda-calculus is conservative in the sense that when the set of labels is the singleton {1}, it coincides with lambda-calculus. The main result of this paper is that the label-selective lambda-calculus is confluent. In other words, argument selection and reduction commute.
Keywords. Lambda-calculus, record calculus, concurrency, communication.
You can get the postcript version of this paper fsttcs93-selective-a4.ps.Z. (65159 bytes). An extended version appeared as DEC PRL report 31, PRL-RR-31.ps.Z. (129525 bytes)
JG 93.11.24