Despite advances in programming language design, much systems software continues to be written in low-level or legacy languages due to challenges in aligning modern language features with systems programming needs. This dissertation demonstrates how a modern statically typed functional language can be extended to address common systems-level problems, particularly the safe manipulation of data with rigid, externally imposed representations. The design introduces language support for programmer-controlled data representations, including bit-field–based datatypes and fixed-layout memory regions, while leveraging established techniques such as type inference, polymorphism, qualified types, and monads to ensure safety and expressiveness.
