Technical reports

Adaptive evaluation of non-strict programs

Robert J. Ennals

August 2008, 243 pages

This technical report is based on a dissertation submitted June 2004 by the author for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the University of Cambridge, King’s College.

DOI: 10.48456/tr-730

Abstract

Most popular programming languages are strict. In a strict language, the binding of a variable to an expression coincides with the evaluation of the expression.

Non-strict languages attempt to make life easier for programmers by decoupling expression binding and expression evaluation. In a non-strict language, a variable can be bound to an unevaluated expression, and such expressions can be passed around just like values in a strict language. This separation allows the programmer to declare a variable at the point that makes most logical sense, rather than at the point at which its value is known to be needed.

Non-strict languages are usually evaluated using a technique called Lazy Evaluation. Lazy Evaluation will only evaluate an expression when its value is known to be needed. While Lazy Evaluation minimises the total number of expressions evaluated, it imposes a considerable bookkeeping overhead, and has unpredictable space behaviour.

In this thesis, we present a new evaluation strategy which we call Optimistic Evaluation. Optimistic Evaluation blends lazy and eager evaluation under the guidance of an online profiler. The online profiler observes the running program and decides which expressions should be evaluated lazily, and which should be evaluated eagerly. We show that the worst case performance of Optimistic Evaluation relative to Lazy Evaluation can be bounded with an upper bound chosen by the user. Increasing this upper bound allows the profiler to take greater risks and potentially achieve better average performance.

This thesis describes both the theory and practice of Optimistic Evaluation. We start by giving an overview of Optimistic Evaluation. We go on to present a formal model, which we use to justify our design. We then detail how we have implemented Optimistic Evaluation as part of an industrial-strength compiler. Finally, we provide experimental results to back up our claims.

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BibTeX record

@TechReport{UCAM-CL-TR-730,
  author =	 {Ennals, Robert J.},
  title = 	 {{Adaptive evaluation of non-strict programs}},
  year = 	 2008,
  month = 	 aug,
  url = 	 {https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-730.pdf},
  institution =  {University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory},
  doi = 	 {10.48456/tr-730},
  number = 	 {UCAM-CL-TR-730}
}