4 ms·

Reconciling Abstraction with High Performance: A MetaOCaml Approach

104 points by myth_drannon 8y ago

ufo 8y ago
Those interested in metaprogramming might also want to check out Terra, a low-level system programming language that is embedded and meta-programmed in Lua: http://terralang.org http://terralang.org. Unlike MetaOcaml, the low level language used for running the algorithms is different from the high-level language used to meta-program it. The low-level terra has a type system and semantics that is much closer to C (including pointers and many different integer types), while Lua is a straightforward dynamic language with a very simple type system. I wonder how statically typed Ocaml compares to dynamically typed Lua for the metaprogramming bits of the system.
- eslaught 8y ago
  Terra's pretty awesome. I used it to build a parallel/distributed programming language which we've been using to match or exceed the performance hand-tuned MPI / C++ code. http://regent-lang.org/ http://regent-lang.org/
- rixed 8y ago
  What I find astounding with meta ocaml is that the compiler guarantees that your program will not generate a program [that will not generate a program]* that will not compile. How does Terra fares in this regard ?
  - eslaught 8y ago
    As you may have expected, Terra doesn't approach this from a type safety perspective. The generated code is of course type checked, but the metaprogram is not. Instead the goals are productivity and performance. And along those axes I have to say it does remarkably well. I've built or been involved in building a number of compilers, I've never seen any other system that has made it as quick and painless to build a system, and get competitive performance[1] out of the gate. [1]: And just to be clear, when I say competitive, I don't mean with C. I mean with hand-tuned assembly and/or vector intrinsics. I regularly get performance with Regent that you simply can't get in a C compiler without writing vector intrinsics by hand.
panic 8y ago
The "tagless-final" DSL style used here is cool in its own right. The author has a page about it here: http://okmij.org/ftp/tagless-final/index.html http://okmij.org/ftp/tagless-final/index.html
tompark 8y ago
It used to be a free download until June 11, but they've extended that period to June 23.

104 points by myth_drannon 8y ago

ufo 8y ago

Those interested in metaprogramming might also want to check out Terra, a low-level system programming language that is embedded and meta-programmed in Lua: http://terralang.org http://terralang.org. Unlike MetaOcaml, the low level language used for running the algorithms is different from the high-level language used to meta-program it. The low-level terra has a type system and semantics that is much closer to C (including pointers and many different integer types), while Lua is a straightforward dynamic language with a very simple type system. I wonder how statically typed Ocaml compares to dynamically typed Lua for the metaprogramming bits of the system.

eslaught 8y ago
Terra's pretty awesome. I used it to build a parallel/distributed programming language which we've been using to match or exceed the performance hand-tuned MPI / C++ code. http://regent-lang.org/ http://regent-lang.org/
rixed 8y ago
What I find astounding with meta ocaml is that the compiler guarantees that your program will not generate a program [that will not generate a program]* that will not compile. How does Terra fares in this regard ?
- eslaught 8y ago
  As you may have expected, Terra doesn't approach this from a type safety perspective. The generated code is of course type checked, but the metaprogram is not. Instead the goals are productivity and performance. And along those axes I have to say it does remarkably well. I've built or been involved in building a number of compilers, I've never seen any other system that has made it as quick and painless to build a system, and get competitive performance[1] out of the gate. [1]: And just to be clear, when I say competitive, I don't mean with C. I mean with hand-tuned assembly and/or vector intrinsics. I regularly get performance with Regent that you simply can't get in a C compiler without writing vector intrinsics by hand.

panic 8y ago

The "tagless-final" DSL style used here is cool in its own right. The author has a page about it here: http://okmij.org/ftp/tagless-final/index.html http://okmij.org/ftp/tagless-final/index.html

tompark 8y ago

It used to be a free download until June 11, but they've extended that period to June 23.