The language includes a rudimentary mechanism for declaring the expected types of values computed during evaluation. The grammar defines a small sub-language of type expressions, which includes the ability to give names to types and to describe aggregate types (lists, bindings, functions) with varying degrees of detail. Type expressions may be attached to function arguments and results and to local variables, indicating the type of the expected value for these identifiers and expressions during evaluation.
The Vesta evaluator currently treats type names and type expressions as syntactically checked comments; it performs no other checking. Future implementations may type-check expressions at run time and report an error if the value does not match the specified type (according to some as yet unspecified definition of what it means for a value to ``match'' a type specification).
The syntax fragments and semantic descriptions in subsequent sections omit any further reference to type expressions entirely.