The Disciplined Disciple Compiler 0.4.2 (2016/04/30)

DDC is a research compiler used to investigate program transformation in the presence of computational effects. This is a development release. There is enough implemented to experiment with the language, but not enough to solve actual problems… (unless you’re looking for a compiler to hack on).

DDC compiles several related languages:

  • Disciple Tetra (.ds)

    An implicitly typed strict functional language with region and effect typing. Uses effect reification (box) and reflection (run) casts to compose computations with differing effects. Effectful computations are classified by the S e a type, for some effect e and return type a. Although type inference is supported, one can also write explicit type abstractions and applications when needed. Higher ranked types are supported with annotations.

  • Disciple Core Tetra (.dct)

    The desugared version of Disciple Tetra. All function application is in prefix form. This language also supports type inference, though the inferencer does not insert additional type quantifiers.

  • Disciple Core Flow (.dcf)

    Application specific language with built-in support for Series expressions and Data Flow Fusion. This language and its associated transforms is used by the repa-plugin available on Hackage.

  • Disciple Core Salt (.dcs)

    A fragment of Disciple Core that can be easily mapped onto C or LLVM code. The Salt language is first-order and does not support partial application. DDC transforms the higher level languages onto this one during code generation, though we can also write programs in it directly.

All core languages share the same abstract syntax tree (AST), type inferencer, and are amenable to many of the same program transformations. They differ only in the set of allowable language features, and which primitive types and operators are included.

Main changes since 0.4.1

  • Added code generation for higher order functions.
  • Added automatic insert of run and box casts.
  • Added multi-module compilation.
  • Added desugaring of guards.
  • Added primitives for dealing with arrays of boxed values and vectors of primitive, unboxed values.
  • Added first cut PHP code generator.
  • Added case-of-known-constructor transform.
  • Clustering and rate inference for Core Flow.
  • Source programs now accept unicode lambdas and dumps of intermediate code use lambdas for both term and type binders.
  • Removed the old ‘Eval’ and ‘Lite’ language fragments.

What works in this release

  • Compilation for the Tetra, and Salt languages.
  • Type checking and data flow fusion for the Flow language.
  • Program transformations: Anonymize (remove names), Beta (substitute), Bubble (move type-casts), Elaborate (add witnesses), Flatten (eliminate nested bindings), Forward (let-floating), Namify (add names), Prune (dead-code elimination), Snip (eliminate nested applications), Rewrite rules, cross-module inlining.

What doesn’t

  • No storage management. There is a fixed 64MB heap and when you’ve allocated that much space the runtime just calls abort().
  • No pattern matching desugaring. You can write case expressions with guards, but nested patterns are not desugared.

Previous Releases

  • 2014/03 DDC 0.4.1: Added bi-directional type inference and region extension.
  • 2013/07 DDC 0.3.2: Added Tetra and Flow language fragments.
  • 2012/12 DDC 0.3.1: Added Lite fragment, compilation to C and LLVM.
  • 2012/02 DDC 0.2.0: Project reboot. New core language, working interpreter.
  • 2008/07 DDC 0.1.1: Alpha compiler, constructor classes, more examples.
  • 2008/03 DDC 0.1.0: Alpha compiler, used dependently kinded core language.

Immediate Plans

  1. Implement type synonyms.
  2. Implement desugaring for pattern matching.

How you can help

  1. Work through the tutorial on the web-site and send any comments to the mailing list.
  2. Say hello on the mailing list and we can help you get started on any of the main missing features. These are all interesting projects.
  3. Tell your friends.

People

The following people contributed to DDC since the last major release:

  • Viktar Basharymau: Documentation fixes.
  • Erik de Castro Lopo: Documentation fixes.
  • Jacob Stanley: Code generation and build system fixes.
  • Amos Robinson: PHP code generator; Clustering and rate inference for Core Flow.
  • Max Swadling: Added -run-static-link option for statically linked runtime.
  • Kyle Van Berendonck: Added case-of-known-constructor transform.
  • Ben Lippmeier: Added lambda lifter and code generation for higher order functions; Automatic insertion of run and box casts; Multi module compilation; Desugaring of guards.