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Implementing RUSSELL

Authors:

Hans-Juergen Boehm,

Alan DemersAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 21, Issue 7

Pages 186 - 195

https://doi.org/10.1145/13310.13330

Published: 01 July 1986 Publication History

Abstract

We have completed an implementation of the Russell programming language [Don 85]. This effort has been very helpful in the evaluation of the original language design. It has also served to pinpoint the difficulties in implementing languages with type systems as general as that of Russell.

Russell treats both functions and types as data objects which can be freely manipulated by the program. Most operators present in conventional programming languages are viewed as function calls. In spite of this, our compiler produces surprisingly efficient machine code, even with minimal effort invested in the code generator.

The generality of the language served to simplify some aspects of the compiler. We focus on the separate compilation mechanism.

The most difficult implementation problem is that of inferring typing information omitted by the programmer. We argue that this is an essential part of type checking a language such as Russell. Our current solution is only partially satisfactory.

References

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Boehm, Hans, Alan J. Demers, and James E~ Donahue, "An Informal Description of Russell", Technical Report 80-430, Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, 1980.

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Implementing RUSSELL

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 21, Issue 7

July 1986

275 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/13310

Editor:
Richard L. Wexelblat
Philips Laboratories, Briarcliff Manor, NY

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGPLAN '86: Proceedings of the 1986 SIGPLAN symposium on Compiler construction
July 1986
275 pages
ISBN:0897911970
DOI:10.1145/12276
Editor:
Richard L Wexelblat
Philips Laboratories, Briarcliff Manor, NY

Copyright © 1986 Authors.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 July 1986

Published in SIGPLAN Volume 21, Issue 7

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Cited By

(2023)BibliographyEngineering a Compiler10.1016/B978-0-12-815412-0.00023-1(793-813)Online publication date: 2023
Cooper KTorczon L(2023)Syntax-Driven TranslationEngineering a Compiler10.1016/B978-0-12-815412-0.00011-5(209-273)Online publication date: 2023
(2012)BibliographyEngineering a Compiler10.1016/B978-0-12-088478-0.00024-4(765-785)Online publication date: 2012
Flanagan CSabry ADuba BFelleisen M(2004)The essence of compiling with continuationsACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/989393.98944339:4(502-514)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2004
Cooper KTorczon L(2003)Engineering a CompilerundefinedOnline publication date: 11-Dec-2003
Flanagan CSabry ADuba BFelleisen M(1993)The essence of compiling with continuationsACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/173262.15511328:6(237-247)Online publication date: 1-Jun-1993
Flanagan CSabry ADuba BFelleisen M(1993)The essence of compiling with continuationsProceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 1993 conference on Programming language design and implementation10.1145/155090.155113(237-247)Online publication date: 1-Aug-1993
Cormack GWright A(1990)Type-dependent parameter inferenceACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/93548.9356025:6(127-136)Online publication date: 1-Jun-1990
Cormack GWright AFischer B(1990)Type-dependent parameter inferenceProceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 1990 conference on Programming language design and implementation10.1145/93542.93560(127-136)Online publication date: 1-Jun-1990
Baker HKahn G(1990)Unify and conquerProceedings of the 1990 ACM conference on LISP and functional programming10.1145/91556.91652(218-226)Online publication date: 1-May-1990
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