Abstract. We construct a readable, compact and efficient implementation of Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm and Fibonacci heaps using Constraint Handling Rules (CHR), which is increasingly used as a high-level rule-based general-purpose programming language. We measure its performance in different CHR systems, investigating both the theoretical asymptotic complexity and the constant factors realized in practice. 1

The power of purely functional programming in the construction of data structures has received much attention, not only because functional languages have many desirable properties, but because structures built purely functionally are automatically fully persistent: any and all versions of a structure can coexist indefinitely. Recent results illustrate the surprising power of pure functionality. One such result was the development of a representation of double-ended queues with catenation that supports all operations, including catenation, in worst-case constant time [19].

This paper briefly surveys what transformational programming is about, and how to make progress in the field. A program transformation is a meaning-preserving mapping defined on a programming language. Transformational programming is a program development methodology in which an implementation I is obtained from a specification S by applying a sequence T k :::T 1 of transformations to S. If S and each transformation T i applied to successive implementations T i\Gamma1 :::T 1 S of S are proved correct for

Abstract. We introduce an adaptation of run-relaxed heaps which provides efficient heap operations with respect to the number of element comparisons performed. Our data structure guarantees the worst-case cost of O(1) for find-min, insert, and decrease; and the worst-case cost of O(lg n) with at most lg n + 3 lg lg n + O(1) element comparisons for delete, improving the bound of 3lg n + O(1) on the number of element comparisons known for run-relaxed heaps. Here, n denotes the number of elements stored prior to the operation in question, and lg n equals max {1, log 2 n}. 1

Traditional database management systems perform updates-in-place and use logs and periodic checkpointing to efficiently achieve atomicity and durability. In this Thesis we shall present a different method, Shades, for achieving atomicity and durability using a copy-on-write policy instead of updates-in-place. We shall also present index structures and the implementation of Shines, a persistent functional programming language, built on top of Shades. Shades includes real-time generational garbage collection. Real-timeness is achieved by collecting only a small part, a generation, of the database at a time. Contrary to previously presented persistent garbage collection algorithms, Shades has no need to maintain metadata (remembered sets) of intra-generation pointers on disk since the metadata can be reconstructed during recovery. This considerably reduces the amount of disk writing. In conjunction with aggressive commit grouping, efficient index structures, a design specialized to a main memory environment, and a carefully crafted implementation of Shines, we have achieved surprisingly high performance, handsomely beating commercial database management systems.

Abstract not found

This paper explains binomial heaps, a beautiful data structure for priority queues, using the functional programming language Haskell (Peterson & Hammond, 1997). We largely follow a deductive approach: using the metaphor of a tennis tournament we show that binomial heaps arise naturally through a number of logical steps. Haskell supports the deductive style of presentation very well: new types are introduced at ease, algorithms can be expressed clearly and succinctly, and Haskell's type classes allow to capture common algorithmic patterns. The paper aims at the level of an undergraduate student who has experience in reading and writing Haskell programs, and who is familiar with the concept of a priority queue. 2 Priority queues

Number systems serve admirably as templates for container types: a container object of size n is modelled after the representation of the number n and operations on container objects are modelled after their number-theoretic counterparts. Binomial queues are probably the first data structure that was designed with this analogy in mind. In this paper we show how to express these so-called numerical representations as higher-order nested datatypes. A nested datatype allows to capture the structural invariants of a numerical representation, so that the violation of an invariant can be detected at compile-time. We develop a programming method which allows to adapt algorithms to the new representation in a mostly straightforward manner. The framework is employed to implement three different container types: binary random-access lists, binomial queues, and 2-3 finger search trees. The latter data structure, which is treated in some depth, can be seen as the main innovation from a data-struct...

. Despite a lot of recent interest in purely functional data structures, for example [Ada93, Oka95, BO96, Oka96, OB97, Erw97], few have been benchmarked. Of these, even fewer have their performance qualified by how they are used. But how a data structure is used can significantly affect performance. This paper makes three original contributions. (1) We present an algorithm for generating a benchmark according to a given use of data structure. (2) We compare use of an automated tool based on this algorithm, with the traditional technique of hand-picked benchmarks, by benchmarking six implementations of random-access list using both methods. (3) We use the results of this benchmarking to present a decision tree for the choice of random-access list implementation, according to how the list will be used. 1 Motivation Recent years have seen renewed interest in purely functional data structures: sets [Ada93], random-access lists [Oka95], priority queues [BO96], arrays [OB97], gr...

Abstract. A simplification of a run-relaxed heap, called a relaxed weak queue, is presented. This new priority-queue implementation supports all operations as efficiently as the original: find-min, insert, and decrease (also called decrease-key) in O(1) worst-case time, and delete in O(lg n) worst-case time, n denoting the number of elements stored prior to the operation. These time bounds are valid on a pointer machine as well as on a random-access machine. A relaxed weak queue is a collection of at most ⌊lg n ⌋ + 1 perfect weak heaps, where there are in total at most ⌊lg n ⌋ + 1 nodes that may violate weak-heap order. In a pointer-based representation of a perfect weak heap, which is a binary tree, it is enough to use two pointers per node to record parent-child relationships. Due to decrease, each node must store one additional pointer. The auxiliary data structures maintained to keep track of perfect weak heaps and potential violation nodes only require O(lg n) words of storage. That is, excluding the space used by the elements themselves, the total space usage of a relaxed weak queue can be as low as 3n + O(lg n) words. ACM CCS Categories and Subject Descriptors. E.1 [Data Structures]: Lists, stacks, and queues; E.2 [Data Storage Representations]: Linked representations;