Functional Reactive Programming (FRP) allows interactive applications to be modelled in a declarative manner using time-varying values. For practical reasons, however, operational constraints are often imposed, such as having a fixed time domain, time always flowing forward, and limiting the exploration of the past.

In this paper we show how these constraints can be overcome, giving local control over the time domain, the direction of time and the sampling step. We study the behaviour of FRP expressions when time flows backwards, and demonstrate how to synchronize subsystems running asynchronously and at different sampling rates. We have verified the practicality of our approach with two non-trivial games in which time control is central to the gameplay.

I like Game Programming, Multimedia and Functional Languages. I am 4th-year PhD student @ Nottingham.

My supervisors are Henrik Nilsson and Graham Hutton.

I am also the lead software developer at Keera Studios(tm), a game programming company that uses Functional Languages to deliver games for Android, iOS and desktop, and apps for mobile platforms.