Alloy: fast generic transformations for Haskell

Neil C.C. Brown; Adam T. Sampson

doi:10.1145/1596638.1596652

Alloy: fast generic transformations for Haskell

Neil C.C. Brown, Adam T. Sampson

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Data-type generic programming can be used to traverse and manipulate specific parts of large heterogeneously-typed tree structures, without the need for tedious boilerplate. Generic programming is often approached from a theoretical perspective, where the emphasis lies on the power of the representation rather than on efficiency. We describe use cases for a generic system derived from our work on a nanopass compiler, where efficiency is a real concern, and detail a new generics approach (Alloy) that we have developed in Haskell to allow our compiler passes to traverse the abstract syntax tree quickly. We benchmark our approach against several other Haskell generics approaches and statistically analyse the results, finding that Alloy is fastest on heterogeneously-typed trees.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Haskell
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Pages	105-116
Number of pages	12
ISBN (Print)	9781605585086
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/1596638.1596652
Publication status	Published - 3 Sep 2009
Externally published	Yes
Event	2nd ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Haskell3/9/2003 - Edinburgh, United Kingdom Duration: 3 Sep 2009 → 3 Sep 2009 Conference number: 2nd

Other

Other	2nd ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Haskell3/9/2003
Abbreviated title	Haskell 2009
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Edinburgh
Period	3/09/09 → 3/09/09

Keywords

Generic programming
Haskell
Alloy

Access to Document

10.1145/1596638.1596652

Cite this

@inproceedings{db76146f5bd84c37bdffea558b90d25a,

title = "Alloy: fast generic transformations for Haskell",

abstract = "Data-type generic programming can be used to traverse and manipulate specific parts of large heterogeneously-typed tree structures, without the need for tedious boilerplate. Generic programming is often approached from a theoretical perspective, where the emphasis lies on the power of the representation rather than on efficiency. We describe use cases for a generic system derived from our work on a nanopass compiler, where efficiency is a real concern, and detail a new generics approach (Alloy) that we have developed in Haskell to allow our compiler passes to traverse the abstract syntax tree quickly. We benchmark our approach against several other Haskell generics approaches and statistically analyse the results, finding that Alloy is fastest on heterogeneously-typed trees.",

author = "Brown, {Neil C.C.} and Sampson, {Adam T.}",

year = "2009",

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doi = "10.1145/1596638.1596652",

language = "English",

isbn = "9781605585086",

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booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Haskell",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)",

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note = "2nd ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Haskell3/9/2003, Haskell 2009 ; Conference date: 03-09-2009 Through 03-09-2009",

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AU - Brown, Neil C.C.

AU - Sampson, Adam T.

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N2 - Data-type generic programming can be used to traverse and manipulate specific parts of large heterogeneously-typed tree structures, without the need for tedious boilerplate. Generic programming is often approached from a theoretical perspective, where the emphasis lies on the power of the representation rather than on efficiency. We describe use cases for a generic system derived from our work on a nanopass compiler, where efficiency is a real concern, and detail a new generics approach (Alloy) that we have developed in Haskell to allow our compiler passes to traverse the abstract syntax tree quickly. We benchmark our approach against several other Haskell generics approaches and statistically analyse the results, finding that Alloy is fastest on heterogeneously-typed trees.

AB - Data-type generic programming can be used to traverse and manipulate specific parts of large heterogeneously-typed tree structures, without the need for tedious boilerplate. Generic programming is often approached from a theoretical perspective, where the emphasis lies on the power of the representation rather than on efficiency. We describe use cases for a generic system derived from our work on a nanopass compiler, where efficiency is a real concern, and detail a new generics approach (Alloy) that we have developed in Haskell to allow our compiler passes to traverse the abstract syntax tree quickly. We benchmark our approach against several other Haskell generics approaches and statistically analyse the results, finding that Alloy is fastest on heterogeneously-typed trees.

U2 - 10.1145/1596638.1596652

DO - 10.1145/1596638.1596652

M3 - Conference contribution

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BT - Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGPLAN symposium on Haskell

PB - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

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Y2 - 3 September 2009 through 3 September 2009

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