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In this thesis we present and analyse a set of automatic source-to-source program transformations that are suitable for incorporation in optimising compilers for lazy functional languages. These transformations improve the quality of code in many different respects, such as execution time and memory usage. The transformations presented are divided in two sets: global transformations, which are performed once (or sometimes twice) during the compilation process; and a set of local transformations, which are performed before and after each of the global transformations, so that they can simplify the code before applying the global transformations and also take advantage of them afterwards. Many of the local transformations are simple, well known, and do not have major effects on their own. They become important as they interact with each other and with global transformations, sometimes in non-obvious ways. We present how and why they improve the code, and perform extensive experiments wit...

We describe SAFL, a call-by-value first-order functional language which is syntactically restricted so that storage may be statically allocated to fixed locations. Evaluation of independent sub-expressions happens in parallel - we use locking techniques to protect shared-use function definitions (i.e. to prevent unrestricted parallel accesses to their storage locations for argument and return values). SAFL programs have a well defined notion of total (program and data) size which we refer to as `area'; similarly we can talk about execution `time'. Fold/unfold transformations on SAFL provide mappings between different points on the area-time spectrum. The space of functions expressible in SAFL is incomparable with the space of primitive recursive functions, in particular interpreters are expressible. The motivation behind SAFL is hardware description and synthesis|we have built an optimising compiler for translating SAFL to silicon.

We give a new semantics for Nuprl's constructive type theory that justifies a useful embedding of the logic of the HOL theorem prover inside Nuprl. The embedding gives Nuprl effective access to most of the large body of formalized mathematics that the HOL community has amassed over the last decade. The new semantics is dramatically simpler than the old, and gives a novel and general way of adding set-theoretic equivalence classes to untyped functional programming languages.

this paper the author was partially supported by an SERC/EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship, EPSRC Research grant GR/L54639, and EU Working Group APPSEM

Developing a theory of bisimulation in higher-order languages can be hard. Particularly challenging can be: (1) the proof of congruence, as well as enhancements of the bisimulation proof method with “up-to context ” techniques, and (2) obtaining definitions and results that scale to languages with different features. To meet these challenges, we present environmental bisimulations, a form of bisimulation for higher-order languages, and its basic theory. We consider four representative calculi: pure λ-calculi (call-by-name and call-byvalue), call-by-value λ-calculus with higher-order store, and then Higher-Order π-calculus. In each case: we present the basic properties of environmental bisimilarity, including congruence; we show that it coincides with contextual equivalence; we develop some up-to techniques, including up-to context, as examples of possible enhancements of the associated bisimulation method. Unlike previous approaches (such as applicative bisimulations, logical relations, Sumii-Pierce-Koutavas-Wand), our method does not require induction/indices on evaluation derivation/steps (which may complicate the proofs of congruence, transitivity, and the combination with up-to techniques), or sophisticated methods such as Howe’s for proving congruence. It also scales from the pure λ-calculi to the richer calculi with simple congruence proofs. 1

Abstract We define a typed compiler intermediate language, MIL-lite, which incorporates computational types refined with effect information. We characterise MIL-lite observational congruence by using Howe's method to prove a ciu theorem for the language in terms of a termination predicate defined directly on the term. We then define a logical predicate which captures an observable version of the intended meaning of each of our effect annotations. Having proved the fundamental theorem for this predicate, we use it with the ciu theorem to validate a number of effect-based transformations performed by the MLj compiler for Standard ML.

Co-induction is an important tool for reasoning about unbounded structures. This tutorial explains the foundations of co-induction, and shows how it justifies intuitive arguments about lazy streams, of central importance to lazy functional programmers. We explain from first principles a theory based on a new formulation of bisimilarity for functional programs, which coincides exactly with Morris-style contextual equivalence. We show how to prove properties of lazy streams by co-induction and derive Bird and Wadler's Take Lemma, a well-known proof technique for lazy streams.

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This paper presents a typed higher-order concurrent functional programming language, based on Moggi's monadic metalanguage and Reppy's Concurrent ML. We present an operational semantics for the language, and show that a higherorder variant of the traces model is fully abstract for maytesting. This proof uses a program logic based on Hennessy-- Milner logic and Abramsky's domain theory in logical form. 1 Introduction This paper presents an operational semantics for a concurrent functional programming language, based on Reppy's [26, 27] Concurrent ML, and Moggi's [22] monadic metalanguage. CML is a concurrent extension of New Jersey ML, which adds communication primitives based on CCS [19] and CSP [11]. Reppy introduces a new type constructor of events, which can spawn concurrent processes, and communicate with them along channels. Three of the constructors for the event type are: always : a#aevent wrap : (aeventa#b)# (bevent) sync : aevent#a These are: . alwayse is an event whic...