Yaghi, Ali A. G. (1984) An intensional implementation technique for functional languages. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The potential of functional programming languages has not been
widely accepted yet. The reason lies in the difficulties associated with
their implementation. In this dissertation we propose a new
implementation technique for functional languages by compiling them
into 'Intensional Logic' of R. Montague and R. Carnap. Our technique is
not limited to a particular hardware or to a particular evaluation
strategy; nevertheless it lends itself directly to demand-driven tagged
dataflow architecture. Even though our technique can handle
conventional languages as well, our main interest is exclusively with
functional languages in general and with Lucid-like dataflow languages
in particular.
We give a brief general account of intensional logic and then
introduce the concept of intensional algebras as structures (models) for
intensional logic. We, formally, show the computability requirements for
such algebras.
The target language of our compilation is the family of languages
DE (definitional equations over intensional expressions). A program in
DE is a linear (not structured) set of non-ambiguous equations defining
nullary variable symbols. One of these variable symbols should be the
symbol result.
We introduce the compilation of Iswim (a first order variant of
Landin's ISWIM) as an example of compiling functions into intensional
expressions. A compilation algorithm is given. Iswim(A), for any algebra
of data types A, is compiled into DE(Flo(A)) where Flo(A) is a uniquely
defined intensional algebra over the tree of function calls. The approach
is extended to compiling Luswim and Lucid.
We describe the demand-driven tagged dataflow (the eduction)
approach to evaluating the intensional family of target languages DE.
Furthermore, for each intensional algebra, we introduce a collection of
rewrite rules. A justification of correctness is given. These rules are the
basis for evaluating programs in the target DE by reduction.
Finally, we discuss possible refinements and extensions to our
approach.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Electronic computers. Computer science. Computer software
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Functional programming languages, Predicate (Logic), Compilers (Computer programs)
Official Date:	September 1984
Dates:	Date Event September 1984 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Computer Science
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Wadge, William W.
Sponsors:	United Arab Emirates. Wizārat al-Tarbiyah wa-al-Taʻlīm [Ministry of Education] ; Science and Engineering Research Council (Great Britain) (SERC)
Extent:	[250] leaves
Language:	eng

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