Compiling a Functional Logic Language: The Fair Scheme

Abstract. We present a compilation scheme for a functional logic programming language. The input program to our compiler is a constructor-based graph rewrit-ing system in a non-confluent, but well-behaved class. This input is an interme-diate representation of a functional logic program in a language such as Curry or T OY. The output program from our compiler consists of three procedures that make recursive calls and execute both rewrite and pull-tab steps. This output is an intermediate representation that is easy to encode in any number of programming languages. Our design evolves the Basic Scheme of Antoy and Peters by removing the “left bias ” that prevents obtaining results of some computations—a behavior related to the order of evaluation, which is counter to declarative programming. The benefits of this evolution are not only the strong completeness of computa-tions, but also the provability of non-trivial properties of these computations. We rigorously describe the compiler design and prove some of its properties. To state and prove these properties, we introduce novel definitions of “need ” and “fail-ure. ” For non-confluent constructor-based rewriting systems these concepts are more appropriate than the classic definition of need of Huet and Levy

The paradigm compiler: Mapping a functional language for the connection machine

The Paradigm Compiler implements a new approach to compiling programs written in high level languages for execution on highly parallel computers. The general approach is to identify the principal data structures constructed by the program and to map these structures onto the processing elements of the target machine. The mapping is chosen to maximize performance as determined through compile time global analysis of the source program. The source language is Sisal, a functional language designed for scientific computations, and the target language is Paris, the published low level interface to the Connection Machine. The data structures considered are multidimensional arrays whose dimensions are known at compile time. Computations that build such arrays usually offer opportunities for highly parallel execution; they are data parallel. The Connection Machine is an attractive target for these computations, and the parallel for construct of the Sisal language is a convenient high level notation for data parallel algorithms. The principles and organization of the Paradigm Compiler are discussed

Compiling Exceptions Correctly

Exceptions are an important feature of modern programming languages, but their compilation has traditionally been viewed as an advanced topic. In this article we show that the basic method of compiling exceptions using stack unwinding can be explained and verified both simply and precisely, using elementary functional programming techniques. In particular, we develop a compiler for a small language with exceptions, together with a proof of its correctness

A Beginner\u27s Guide to Scala, Object Orientation and Functional Programming

Scala is now an established programming language developed by Martin Oderskey and his team at the EPFL. The name Scala is derived from Sca(lable) La(nguage). Scala is a multi-paradigm language, incorporating object oriented approaches with functional programming. Although some familiarity with standard computing concepts is assumed (such as the idea of compiling a program and executing this compiled from etc.) and with basic procedural language concepts (such as variables and allocation of values to these variables) the early chapters of the book do not assume any familiarity with object orientation nor with functional programming These chapters also step through other concepts with which the reader may not be familiar (such as list processing). From this background, the book provides a practical introduction to both object and functional approaches using Scala. These concepts are introduced through practical experience taking the reader beyond the level of the language syntax to the philosophy and practice of object oriented development and functional programming. Students and those actively involved in the software industry will find this comprehensive introduction to Scala invaluable

MELT - a Translated Domain Specific Language Embedded in the GCC Compiler

The GCC free compiler is a very large software, compiling source in several languages for many targets on various systems. It can be extended by plugins, which may take advantage of its power to provide extra specific functionality (warnings, optimizations, source refactoring or navigation) by processing various GCC internal representations (Gimple, Tree, ...). Writing plugins in C is a complex and time-consuming task, but customizing GCC by using an existing scripting language inside is impractical. We describe MELT, a specific Lisp-like DSL which fits well into existing GCC technology and offers high-level features (functional, object or reflexive programming, pattern matching). MELT is translated to C fitted for GCC internals and provides various features to facilitate this. This work shows that even huge, legacy, software can be a posteriori extended by specifically tailored and translated high-level DSLs.Comment: In Proceedings DSL 2011, arXiv:1109.032