2,753 research outputs found
Translating Generalized Algebraic Data Types to System F
Generalized algebraic data types (GADTs) extend ordinary
algebraic data types by refining the types of constructors with syntactic
equality constraints. This is highly useful and allows for novel applications
such as strongly-typed evaluators, typed LR parsing etc. To translate
GADTs we need to enrich the System F style typed intermediate
languages of modern language implementations to capture these equality
constraints. We show that GADTs can be translated to a minor extension
of System F where type equality proofs are compiled into System
F typable proof terms. At run-time proof terms evaluate to the identity.
Hence, they can be safely erased before execution of the program. We
provide evidence that our approach scales to deal with extensions where
equality is not anymore syntactic. The benefit of our method is that type
checking of target programs remains as simple as type checking in System
F. Thus, we can offer a light-weight approach to integrate GADTs
and extensions of it into existing implementations
Speculative Staging for Interpreter Optimization
Interpreters have a bad reputation for having lower performance than
just-in-time compilers. We present a new way of building high performance
interpreters that is particularly effective for executing dynamically typed
programming languages. The key idea is to combine speculative staging of
optimized interpreter instructions with a novel technique of incrementally and
iteratively concerting them at run-time.
This paper introduces the concepts behind deriving optimized instructions
from existing interpreter instructions---incrementally peeling off layers of
complexity. When compiling the interpreter, these optimized derivatives will be
compiled along with the original interpreter instructions. Therefore, our
technique is portable by construction since it leverages the existing
compiler's backend. At run-time we use instruction substitution from the
interpreter's original and expensive instructions to optimized instruction
derivatives to speed up execution.
Our technique unites high performance with the simplicity and portability of
interpreters---we report that our optimization makes the CPython interpreter up
to more than four times faster, where our interpreter closes the gap between
and sometimes even outperforms PyPy's just-in-time compiler.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables. Uses CPython 3.2.3 and PyPy 1.
A Logical Foundation for Environment Classifiers
Taha and Nielsen have developed a multi-stage calculus {\lambda}{\alpha} with
a sound type system using the notion of environment classifiers. They are
special identifiers, with which code fragments and variable declarations are
annotated, and their scoping mechanism is used to ensure statically that
certain code fragments are closed and safely runnable. In this paper, we
investigate the Curry-Howard isomorphism for environment classifiers by
developing a typed {\lambda}-calculus {\lambda}|>. It corresponds to
multi-modal logic that allows quantification by transition variables---a
counterpart of classifiers---which range over (possibly empty) sequences of
labeled transitions between possible worlds. This interpretation will reduce
the "run" construct---which has a special typing rule in
{\lambda}{\alpha}---and embedding of closed code into other code fragments of
different stages---which would be only realized by the cross-stage persistence
operator in {\lambda}{\alpha}---to merely a special case of classifier
application. {\lambda}|> enjoys not only basic properties including subject
reduction, confluence, and strong normalization but also an important property
as a multi-stage calculus: time-ordered normalization of full reduction. Then,
we develop a big-step evaluation semantics for an ML-like language based on
{\lambda}|> with its type system and prove that the evaluation of a well-typed
{\lambda}|> program is properly staged. We also identify a fragment of the
language, where erasure evaluation is possible. Finally, we show that the proof
system augmented with a classical axiom is sound and complete with respect to a
Kripke semantics of the logic
Program logics for homogeneous meta-programming.
A meta-program is a program that generates or manipulates another program; in homogeneous meta-programming, a program may generate new parts of, or manipulate, itself. Meta-programming has been used extensively since macros
were introduced to Lisp, yet we have little idea how formally to reason about metaprograms. This paper provides the first program logics for homogeneous metaprogramming
â using a variant of MiniMLe by Davies and Pfenning as underlying meta-programming language.We show the applicability of our approach by reasoning about example meta-programs from the literature. We also demonstrate that our logics are relatively complete in the sense of Cook, enable the inductive derivation of characteristic formulae, and exactly capture the observational properties induced by the operational semantics
Dynamically typed languages
Dynamically typed languages such as Python and Ruby have experienced a rapid grown in popularity in recent times. However, there is much confusion as to what makes these languages interesting relative to statically typed languages, and little knowledge of their rich history. In this chapter I explore the general topic of dynamically typed languages, how they differ from statically typed languages, their history, and their defining features
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