Lambda the Ultimate

Hi,

For my master thesis I'm designing a new programming language for a specific domain related to data processing.

One of the neat features I'd like to include in the language would be the concept of memory, in that each variable would remember its past values and the interval it held them. This can simplify lot's of queries as time itself is central in this domain.

Anyway, being just a graduate student, I know this idea must not be new. However, the most similar topic I was able to dig were temporal databases and temporal query languages. I wonder if there is anything else. Also, I wonder if it is possible for the compiler to analyze the program and find out how much memory it really needs to keep. Comments?

Thanks,

Luís Pureza