ALEA IACTA EST: A Declarative Domain-Specific Language for Manually Performable Random Experiments

Abstract

Random experiments that are simple and clear enough to be performed by human agents feature prominently in the teaching of elementary stochastics as well as in games. We present Alea, a domain-specific language for the specification of random experiments. Alea code can either be analyzed statically to obtain and inspect probability distributions of outcomes, or be executed with a source pseudo-randomness for simulation or as a game assistant. The language is intended for ease of use by non-expert programmers, in particular students of elementary stochastics, and players and designers of games of chance, by focusing on concepts common to functional programming and basic mathematics. Both the design of the language and the implementation of runtime environments are work in progress.