Elena Machkasova

A Calculus for Link-Time Compilation

We present a module calculus for studying a simple model of link-time compilation. The calculus is stratified into a term calculus, a core module calculus, and a linking calculus. At each level, we show that the calculus enjoys a computational soundness property: if two terms are equivalent in the calculus, then they have the same outcome in a small-step operational semantics. This implies that any module transformation justified by the calculus is meaning preserving. This result is interesting because recursive module bindings thwart confluence at two levels of our calculus, and prohibit application of the traditional technique for showing computational soundness, which requires confluence. We introduce a new technique, based on properties we call lift and project, that uses a weaker notion of confluence with respect to evaluation to establish computational soundness for our module calculus.We also introduce the weak distributivity property for a transformation T operating on modules D1 and D2 linked by ⊕: T(D1 ⊕ D2) = T(T(D1) ⊕ T(D2)). We argue that this property finds promising candidates for link-time optimizations.

Simulation in the Call-by-Need Lambda-Calculus with letrec.

This paper shows the equivalence of applicative similarity and contextual approximation, and hence also of bisimilarity and contextual equivalence, in the deterministic call-by-need lambda calculus with letrec. Bisimilarity simplifies equivalence proofs in the calculus and opens a way for more convenient correctness proofs for program transformations. Although this property may be a natural one to expect, to the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first one providing a proof. The proof technique is to transfer the contextual approximation into Abramskys lazy lambda calculus by a fully abstract and surjective translation. This also shows that the natural embedding of Abramskys lazy lambda calculus into the call-by-need lambda calculus with letrec is an isomorphism between the respective term-models. We show that the equivalence property proven in this paper transfers to a call-by-need letrec calculus developed by Ariola and Felleisen.

Simulation in the Call-by-Need Lambda-Calculus with Letrec, Case, Constructors, and Seq

This paper shows equivalence of several versions of applicative similarity and contextual approximation, and hence also of applicative bisimilarity and contextual equivalence, in LR, the deterministic call-by-need lambda calculus with letrec extended by data constructors, case-expressions and Haskells seq-operator. LR models an untyped version of the core language of Haskell. The use of bisimilarities simplifies equivalence proofs in calculi and opens a way for more convenient correctness proofs for program transformations. The proof is by a fully abstract and surjective transfer into a call-by-name calculus, which is an extension of Abramskys lazy lambda calculus. In the latter calculus equivalence of our similarities and contextual approximation can be shown by Howes method. Similarity is transferred back to LR on the basis of an inductively defined similarity. The translation from the call-by-need letrec calculus into the extended call-by-name lambda calculus is the composition of two translations. The first translation replaces the call-by-need strategy by a call-by-name strategy and its correctness is shown by exploiting infinite trees which emerge by unfolding the letrec expressions. The second translation encodes letrec-expressions by using multi-fixpoint combinators and its correctness is shown syntactically by comparing reductions of both calculi. A further result of this paper is an isomorphism between the mentioned calculi, which is also an identity on letrec-free expressions.

Extending Abramsky's Lazy Lambda Calculus: (Non)-Conservativity of Embeddings

Our motivation is the question whether the lazy lambda calculus, a pure lambda calculus with the leftmost outermost rewriting strategy, considered under observational semantics, or extensions thereof, are an adequate model for semantic equivalences in real-world purely functional programming languages, in particular for a pure core language of Haskell. We explore several extensions of the lazy lambda calculus: addition of a seq-operator, addition of data constructors and case-expressions, and their combination, focusing on conservativity of these extensions. In addition to untyped calculi, we study their monomorphically and polymorphically typed versions. For most of the extensions we obtain non-conservativity which we prove by providing counterexamples. However, we prove conservativity of the extension by data constructors and case in the monomorphically typed scenario.

Counterexamples to applicative simulation and extensionality in non-deterministic call-by-need lambda-calculi with letrec

This note provides an example that demonstrates that in non-deterministic call-by-need lambda-calculi extended with cyclic let, extensionality as well as applicative bisimulation in general may not be used as criteria for contextual equivalence w.r.t. may- and two different forms of must-convergence. We also outline how the counterexample can be adapted to other calculi.

Computational Soundness of a Call by Name Calculus of Recursively-scoped Records

The paper presents a calculus of recursively-scoped records: a two-level calculus with a traditional call-by-name @l-calculus at a lower level and unordered collections of labeled @l-calculus terms at a higher level. Terms in records may reference each other, possibly in a mutually recursive manner, by means of labels. We define two relations: a rewriting relation that models program transformations and an evaluation relation that defines a small-step operational semantics of records. Both relations follow a call-by-name strategy. We use a special symbol called a black hole to model cyclic dependencies that lead to infinite substitution. Computational soundness is a property of a calculus that connects the rewriting relation and the evaluation relation: it states that any sequence of rewriting steps (in either direction) preserves the meaning of a record as defined by the evaluation relation. The computational soundness property implies that any program transformation that can be represented as a sequence of forward and backward rewriting steps preserves the meaning of a record as defined by the small step operational semantics. In this paper we describe the computational soundness framework and prove computational soundness of the calculus. The proof is based on a novel inductive context-based argument for meaning preservation of substituting one component into another.

The observer effect of profiling on dynamic Java optimizations

We show that the bytecode injection approach used in common Java profilers, such as HPROF and JProfiler, disables some program optimizations that are performed when the same program is running without a profiler. This behavior is present in both the client and the server mode of the HotSpot JVM.

Optimizing java programs using generic types

Our research involves improving performance of programs written in the Java programming language. By selective specialization of generic types, we enable the compiler to eliminate typecasting, and provide type information to remove dynamic method lookup at runtime. An example of this specialization using Quicksort showed performance improvement of about 25%.