SeminarReportOn
FUNCTIONALPROGRAMMINGINHASKELL
Submittedby
SITHARAA
Inthepartialfulfillmentofrequirementsindegreeof MasterofTechnology(MTech)inComputer&InformationScience
DEPARTMENTOFCOMPUTERSCIENCE COCHINUNIVERSITYOFSCIENCEANDTECHNOLOGY KOCHI682022 2008
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
[Link] havecontributedtothecompletionoftheseminarandhelpedmewithvaluablesuggestionsfor improvement. [Link],Director,[Link],for providing me with best facilities and atmosphere for the creative work guidance and [Link],[Link],Lecturer,[Link] computerScience,[Link] andfriendsforextendingtheircooperationduringmyseminar. AboveallIwouldliketothankmyparentswithoutwhoseblessings;Iwouldnothavebeenableto accomplishmygoal.
ABSTRACT
Assoftwarebecomesmoreandmorecomplex,itismoreandmoreimportanttostructureitwell. Wellstructuredsoftwareiseasytowrite,easytodebug,andprovidesacollectionofmodulesthat [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link],suchasHaskell,canmakeiteasierand cheaper. [Link] yearsofcuttingedgeresearch,itallowsrapiddevelopmentofrobust,concise,[Link] strong support for integration with other languages, builtin concurrency and parallelism, debuggers,profilers, richlibraries andanactivecommunity,Haskellmakesiteasiertoproduce flexible,maintainablehighqualitysoftware.
KEYWORDS: lambdacalculus,pure,currying,lazyevaluation,higherorderfunctions,Lolita, house,listcomprehension,tailrecursion,adhocpolymorphism.
CONTENTS
[Link].........................................................................................................5 [Link]...............................................6 [Link].........................................................................................7 3.1PURE...................................................................................................................7 3.2STRONGLYTYPED...........................................................................................7 3.3STATICALLYTYPED........................................................................................8 3.4FUNCTIONAL....................................................................................................8 3.5CURRYING.........................................................................................................10 3.6LISTCOMPREHENSIONS................................................................................10 3.7LAZYEVALUATION.......................................................................................12 3.8RECURSION................................................................................................14 3.9HIGHERORDERFUNCTIONS..................................................................15 3.10POLYMORPHISM.....................................................................................................16 [Link].....................................................................................................18 4.1NATURALLANGUAGEINTERFACES.......................................................22 4.2PARALLELPROGRAMMING.......................................................................23 [Link]........................................................................................24 [Link]...........................................................................................................25 [Link]............................................................................................................26
[Link]
[Link],itisapolymorphicallystaticallytyped, lazy, purely functional language, quite different from most other programming languages. The language is named for Haskell Brooks Curry, whose work in mathematical logic serves as a [Link];hencethelambdais [Link]:
Substantiallyincreasedprogrammerproductivity. Shorter,clearer,andmoremaintainablecode. Fewererrors,higherreliability. Asmaller"semanticgap"betweentheprogrammerandthelanguage. Shorterleadtimes.
Haskellisawidespectrumlanguage,[Link] [Link]'s life is spent in specification, design and maintenance, and not in programming. Functional languagesaresuperbforwritingspecificationswhichcanactuallybeexecutedandhencetestedand [Link] arealsorelativelyeasytomaintain,becausethecodeisshorter,clearer,andtherigorouscontrolof sideeffectseliminatesahugeclassofunforeseeninteractions.
[Link]
Thefunctionalprogrammingparadigmwasexplicitlycreatedtosupportapurefunctionalapproach [Link], mostmainstreamlanguages;includingobjectorientedprogramming(OOP)languagessuchasC#, Visual Basic, C++, and Java were designed to primarily support imperative (procedural) programming.
Withanimperativeapproach,adeveloperwritescodethatdescribesinexactingdetailthestepsthat the computer must take to accomplish the goal. This is sometimes referred to as algorithmic programming. In contrast, a functional approach involves composing the problem as a set of [Link],andwhateachfunction returns. The following table describes some of the general differences between these two approaches.
Characteristic
Imperativeapproach Howtoperformtasks (algorithms)andhowto trackchangesinstate. Important. Important.
Functionalapproach
Programmerfocus
Whatinformationisdesiredandwhat transformationsarerequired. Nonexistent. Lowimportance.
Statechanges Orderofexecution
Primaryflowcontrol
Loops,conditionals,and Functioncalls,includingrecursion. function(method)calls.
Primarymanipulation Instancesofstructuresor Functionsasfirstclassobjectsanddata unit classes. collections.
[Link]
3.1PURE
[Link] [Link],afunctionthatprintssomethingtothescreenissaidtobe sideeffecting, as is a function which affects the value of a global variable. Of course, a programminglanguagewithoutsideeffectswouldbehorriblyuseless;Haskellusesasystemof monadstoisolateallimpurecomputations fromtherestoftheprogramandperformtheminthesafeway. Purely functional programs operate only on immutable data. This is possible because on each [Link], [Link] more references to the old version the unrefered data can be collected by automatic memory management,[Link],biggerdatastructures share theirpartsbetween versionsanddonotconsumeasmuchmemoryasallversionsseparately. Pure computations yield the same value each time they are invoked. This property is called referential transparency and makes possible to conduct equational reasoning on the code. For instanceify=fxandg=hyythenweshouldbeabletoreplacethedefinitionofgwithg=h(fx) (fx)andgetthesameresult,onlytheefficiencymightchange.
3.2STRONGLYTYPED
Haskellhasthefollowingbuildinbasicdatatypes:
Bool:FalseorTrue Char:thesetofUnicodecharacters Integer:arbitraryprecisionintegernumbers Int:fixedprecisioninteger,atleast[229,2291]
Float:realfloatingpointnumber,singleprecision Double:doubleprecision
Wecanusethefollowingwaystodefinecomplexdatatypesoutofotherdatatypesusingdata constructors:
Enumeration Lists Tuples Recursion Listcomprehension
EnumerationissimilartothecodetypesofPascal,[Link] byexplicitlymentioningthem. Example:dataWeekday=Mo|Tu|We|Th|Fr|Sa|Su Mo,Tu,We,Th,Fr,Sa,[Link] constructors(theycanbeusedtoconstructthedatatype). Haskelltreatslistssomewherebetweenprimitiveandcomplexdatatypes,sinceitalreadyprovides listconstructorsanddoesnotrequiretoexplicitlydefinelists Ifadenotesadatatype,then[a] denoteslistsoverthisdatatype.[Integer]denoteslistcontainingintegers.[]denotestheemptylist. The:constructorcanalsobeusedtoproducelists. [Link] (,,)(withn1commas,ifwedefineanntuple)or,forparameterizedtupletypes,wecandefine ourownconstructors. dataDate=(Day,Month,Year) dataCartProducta=Prodaa a is here a type variable indicating the parameter of the parameterized type. Haskell allows a programmertodefinecomplexdatatypesusingthedatastatement: dataMybool=MyFalse|MyTrue
3.3STATICALLYTYPED
Haskell'[Link] type system ensures that Haskell programs are type safe; that is, that the programmer has not [Link],wecannotgenerallyaddtogethertwocharacters,so theexpression'a'+'b'[Link]: All type errors are detected at compiletime. Not all errors are caught by the type system; an expressionsuchas1/[Link],the typesystemfindsmanyprogramerrorsatcompiletime,aidstheuserinreasoningaboutprograms, andalsopermitsacompilertogeneratemoreefficientcode(forexample,noruntimetypetagsor testsarerequired).
[Link],Haskell'stype systemispowerfulenoughtoallowustoavoidwritinganytypesignaturesatall;wesaythatthe [Link],judiciousplacementoftypesignaturesisa good idea, since type signatures are a very effective form of documentation and help bring programmingerrorstolight. [Link],thetypeoffoldrisinferredtobe: (a>b>b)>b>[a]> b,whichcanbereadasfollows:foldrtakesasargumentabinaryoperator, whoseinputvaluescanbeofanytypesaandbandwhose outputvalueisoftypeb,andreturnsasitsresultafunctionfwhichtakesavalueoftypebasinput andwhichreturnsasitsresultafunctionfwhichtakesalistofvaluesoftypeaasinput,and [Link] todefinefunctionswheretheinputtypesofitsfirstoperatorargumentaredifferent.
3.4FUNCTIONAL
Inafunctionallanguage,everything(evenaprogram)[Link],writingaprogramis [Link];thatis,wecanhavemany [Link] [Link]
includedintheHaskellPreludeandintheHaskellLibraries.
[Link],wehavetodefinethetypesfortheargumentsandthe result.e.g.:
doubleIt::Integer>Integer
[Link]::separatesthenameofthefunctionfromthetype definition. Theparametertypesareseparatedfromeachother andfromthereturntypeby >. Therefore,thedeclarationabovereadsdoubleItisafunctionwithoneIntegerparameter,returning Integer.
Thesecondpartofwritingafunctionistheconcreteimplementation,e.g.:
doubleItx=2*x
Thedifferentmethodsfordefiningfunctionsare
Patternmatching
fac::Int>Int fac0=1 facn=n*fac(n1)
Conditionalexpression
sign1::Int>String sign1x= ifx<0then"negative" elseifx>0then"positive" else"zero"
Guards
ab::Int>Int abn |(n>=0)=n |otherwise=(n)
Casestatement
cas::Int>Int casx= casexof 0>1 1>5 2>2
"where"clausetoholdlocaldefinitions
sumSq::Int>Int>Int sumSqxy=sqX+sqY where sqX=x*x sqY=y*y
3.5CURRYING
Curryingistheprocessoftransformingafunctionthattakesmultipleargumentsintoafunctionthat takesjustasingleargumentandreturnsanotherfunctionifanyargumentsarestillneeded. f::a>b>c isthecurriedformof g::(a,b)>c
WecanconvertthesetwotypesineitherdirectionswiththePreludefunctionscurryanduncurry. f=curryg g=uncurryf [Link] fxy=g(x,y), howeverthecurriedformisusuallymoreconvenientbecauseitallowspartialapplication.
add::Int>Int>Int addxy=x+y addOne=add1
Inthisexample, addOne istheresultofpartiallyapplying [Link] integer,[Link]>operator isrightassociative,andfunctionapplicationisleftassociative,meaningthetypesignatureofadd actuallylookslikethis: add::Int>(Int>Int) Thismeansthataddactuallytakesoneargumentandreturnsafunctionthattakesanotherargument [Link],allfunctionsareconsideredcurried:Thatis,allfunctionsinHaskell takejustsinglearguments. Thisismostlyhiddeninnotation,[Link]'stakethefunction div::Int>Int>Int [Link]'s morethat'[Link]'[Link], div11 isevaluatedandreturnsafunctionoftype Int>Int
Thenthatresultingfunctionisappliedtothevalue2,[Link]'llnoticethatthenotationfor typesreflectsthis:wecanread Int>Int>Int incorrectlyas"takestwo Intsandreturnsan Int",butwhatit's really sayingis"takesan Int and returnssomethingofthetypeInt>Int"thatis,itreturnsafunctionthattakesanIntandreturns an Int.(Onecanwritethetypeas Int x Int > Int ifwereallymeantheformerbutsinceall functionsinHaskellarecurried,that'snotlegalHaskell.
Alternatively,usingtuples,wecanwrite(Int,Int)>Int,butkeepinmindthatthetupleconstructor (,) itself can be [Link] of the time, currying can be ignored. The major advantage of consideringallfunctionsascurriedistheoretical:formalproofsareeasierwhenallfunctionsare treateduniformly(oneargumentin,oneresultout).
3.6LISTCOMPREHENSIONS
Listcomprehensionisasyntacticconstructavailableinsomeprogramminglanguagesforcreatinga list based on existing lists. It follows the form of the mathematical setbuilder notation (set comprehension.)[Link] insetbuildernotation.
Thiscanberead,"Sisthesetofall2*xwherexisaniteminthesetofnaturalnumbers,forwhich xsquaredisgreaterthan3."
Intheexample:
xisthevariablerepresentingmembersofaninputset. Theinputsetis . x2>3isapredicatefunctionactingasafilteronmembersoftheinputset. And isanoutputfunctionproducingmembersofthenewsetfrommembersofthe inputsetthatsatisfythepredicatefunction.
Thebracketscontaintheexpressionandtheverticalbarandcommaareseparators.
Alistcomprehensionhasthesamesyntacticcomponentstorepresentgenerationofalistinorder fromaninputlistoriterator:
Avariablerepresentingmembersofaninputlist. Aninputlist(oriterator). Anoptionalpredicateexpression. Andanoutputexpressionproducingmembersoftheoutputlistfrommembersoftheinput iterablethatsatisfythepredicate.
[Link] widelyused,[Link] calledlistcomprehension(inanalogywithsetcomprehensioninsettheory).InHaskell'slist comprehensionsyntax,thissetbuilderconstructwouldbewrittensimilarly,as: s=[2*x|x<[0..],x^2>3] Here,thelist[0..]represents ,x^2>3representsthepredicate,and2*xrepresentstheoutput expression.
Supposexsisthelist[1,2,3,4,5,6],thenthesetcomprehension [2*x|x<xs] denotesthelist[2,4,6,8,10,12],[Link][ E|P<LExp],werefertoEasthebodyandP<lExpastheselector;notethatLExpcanbeany expressionofalisttype,Pcanbeapattern,[Link] orderofgenerationofmembersoftheoutputlistisbasedontheorderofitemsintheinput.
List comprehensions give results in a defined order, (unlike the members of sets); and list comprehensionsmaygeneratethemembersofalistinorder,ratherthanproducetheentiretyofthe listthusallowing,forexample,thepreviousHaskelldefinitionofthemembersofaninfinitelist.
3.7LAZYEVALUATION
Lazyevaluation(ordelayedevaluation)isthetechniqueofdelayingacomputationuntilsuchtime astheresultofthecomputationisknowntobeneeded.
The actions of lazy evaluation include: performance increases due to avoiding unnecessary calculations,avoidingerrorconditionsintheevaluationofcompoundexpressions,theabilityto constructinfinite datastructures,andtheabilitytodefine controlstructures asregularfunctions ratherthanbuiltinprimitives.
Languages that use lazy actions can be further subdivided into those that use a callbyname [Link],suchasHaskell, usecallbyneedforperformancereasons,buttheoreticalpresentationsoflazyevaluationoftenuse callbynameforsimplicity.
Theoppositeoflazyactionsiseagerevaluation,[Link] theevaluationbehaviorusedinmostprogramminglanguages. Haskellevaluatesexpressionsusinglazyevaluation: 1. Noexpressionisevaluateduntilitsvalueisneeded. 2. Nosharedexpressionisevaluatedmorethanonce;iftheexpressioniseverevaluatedthen theresultissharedbetweenallthoseplacesinwhichitisused. Lazyfunctionsarealsocallednonstrictandevaluatetheirargumentslazilyorbyneed.
3.8RECURSION
[Link]'tdirectly possibleinHaskell,[Link],wecanalways [Link] [Link] andspace.
Whenafunctioniscalled,thecomputermust"remember"theplaceitwascalledfrom,thereturn address,[Link],this informationissavedonthestack,asimplelistofreturnlocationsinorderofthetimesthatthecall locations they describe were reached. Sometimes, the last thing that a function does after completingallotheroperationsistosimplycallafunction,possiblyitself,[Link] inthiscase,thereisnoneedtoremembertheplacewearecallingfrominstead,wecanleavethe stack alone, and the newly called function will return its result directly to the original caller. [Link] tailcalldoesn'thavetoappearlexicallyafterallotherstatementsinthesourcecode;itisonly importantthatitsresultbeimmediatelyreturned,sincethecallingfunctionwillnevergetachance todoanythingafterthecalliftheoptimizationisperformed.
Tailrecursion(ortailendrecursion)isaspecialcaseofrecursioninwhichthelastoperationof the functionis a [Link] be easily transformedtoiterations. Replacingrecursionwithiteration,manuallyorautomatically,candrasticallydecreasetheamount of stack [Link] functional programming languages,wherethedeclarativeapproach andexplicithandlingof state promote theuseofrecursivefunctionsthatwouldotherwiserapidlyfillthecallstack.
3.9HIGHERORDERFUNCTIONS
Ahigherorderfunctionisafunctionthattakesotherfunctionsasargumentsorreturnsafunctionas [Link],foldandfilter.
map:Ittakesintwoinputsafunction,[Link]
thelist.
map::(a>b)>[a]>[b]
mapfxs=[fx|x<xs] Main>map(+1)[1..5] [2,3,4,5,6]
fold:foldtakesinafunctionandfoldsitinbetweentheelementsofalist.
fofoldl::(a>b>a)>a>[b]>a foldlfz[]=z foldlfz(x:xs)=foldlf(fzx)xs Thecommandtoaddthefirst5numberswithfold. foldl(+)0[1..5] Foldtaketheelementsofthelistandwritethemoutseparatelywithaspacebetweeneach. 1 2 3 4 5
Andnowwe fold [Link],wewritethefunctionintheempty spacesbetweentheelements.
Notethatthere'snothingbeforethefirst(+).That'[Link]'s [Link],wesaidzero,sowe'llputitinthere. 0 + 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5
Andallthisgivesusthefinalresult Main>foldl(+)0[1..5] 15 Andifwechangethestartingpoint,wegetthecorrespondinganswer. Main>foldl(+)1[1..5] 16 Main>foldl(+)10[1..5] 25 Wecanalsogothroughthelistfromrighttoleft,[Link]'swhyweusefoldl [Link] [Link]'[Link], Main>foldr(div)7[34,56,12,4,23] 8 Main>foldl(div)7[34,56,12,4,23] 0
filter:Ittakesina'test'andalist,anditchucksoutanyelementsofthelistwhichdon'tsatisfy
thattest. filter::(a>Bool)>[a]>[a] filterpxs=[x|x<xs,px] Main>filter(even)[1..10] [2,4,6,8,10] Main>filter(>5)[1..10] [6,7,8,9,10]
3.10POLYMORPHISM
Polymorphismisa programminglanguage featurethatallowsvaluesofdifferent datatypes tobe [Link]
typesand [Link] [Link](e.g.,alist withelementsofarbitrarytype)isdesignatedpolymorphicdatatypelikethegeneralizedtypefrom whichsuchspecializationsaremade. [Link] beusedisfiniteandthecombinationsmustbespecifiedindividuallypriortouse,itiscalledAdhoc [Link] transparentlywithanynumberofnewtypes,itiscalledparametricpolymorphism. Haskellisastronglytypedlanguage,whichmeansthateveryexpressionhasatype,andthatthe [Link] operators,[Link]'[Link],length returnsanumberofsomekind;infact,itreturnsa32bitinteger,i.e.,[Link] listasargument,butwhatkindoflist?Theansweristhatittakesanykindoflistasargument: length::[a]>Int Thetypeoflength'sargumentis[a],[Link] simplyanamestandingforanyHaskelltype;whenweevaluatelength"word",forexample,thea standsfor(ormoreprecisely,isinstantiatedto)Char,andwhenweevaluatelength[(1,2)],thea standsfor(isinstantiatedto)(Int,Int).Thisisanexampleofparametricpolymorphism, In Haskell, type classes provide a structured way to control ad hoc polymorphism, or [Link]'sstartwithasimple,butimportant,example:[Link] typesforwhichwewouldlikeequalitydefined,[Link], comparingtheequalityoffunctionsisgenerallyconsideredcomputationallyintractable,whereaswe [Link],considerthisdefinitionofthe function elem which tests for membership in a list:
x`elem`[]=False x`elem`(y:ys)=x==y||(x`elem`ys) Intuitivelyspeaking,thetypeofelem"ought"tobe:a>[a]>[Link]==has
type a>a>Bool, even though we just said that we don't expect == to be defined for all [Link],evenif==weredefinedonalltypes,comparingtwolistsforequalityisvery [Link],weexpect==tobeoverloadedtocarryon thesevarioustasks. [Link] instancesofwhichclass,andtoprovidedefinitionsoftheoverloadedoperationsassociatedwitha class.
DefiningclassesinHaskell
classEqawhere (==),(/=)::a>a>Bool
CreatingInstanceofClassEq
instanceEqIntegerwhere x==y=x`integerEq`y instanceEqFloatwhere x==y=x`floatEq`y
ClassExtension
classEqa)=>Ordawhere (<),(<=),(>=),(>)::a>a>Bool max,min::a>a>a
TypeClassesinHaskell
[Link]
4.1NATURALLANGUAGEINTERFACES Parsercombinators
LFPhasbeenusedinaconventionalwaytoimplementarangeofparsersthathavealreadybeen implemented in other programming languages. parser combinators is an approach to parser [Link] proposed by Burgein1975, Theideaistoconstructmorecomplexlanguageprocessors from simplerprocessorsbycombiningthemusinghigherorderfunctions(theparsercombinators).This approach was developed further by Wadler [1985] who suggested that recognizers and parsers [Link],andan empty list of successes denotes failure to recognize the input. Fairburn promoted combinator parsing by using it as an example of a programming style in which form follows function: a languageprocessorthatisconstructedusingparsercombinatorshasastructurewhichisverysimilar tothegrammardefiningthelanguagetobeprocessed.
ConstructionofMorphologies
A morphology is a system which explains the internal structure of [Link] nouns have [Link],cat,cat++s,andcat++++s, [Link] language can be defined using a set of inflection tables. The conventional approach to morphologicalrecognitionistocompilethetablesintofinitestateautomata,andthentoparse [Link],Pembeci[1995]hasbuiltamorphologicalanalyzer forTurkishusingparsercombinators implementedinMirandaandclaimsthattheanalyzercanparseapproximately99%ofallword [Link]
implemented,andthatanumberofadvantagesresultfromuseofparsercombinators,including clarity and modifiability of the code. Forsberg [2004], and Forsberg and Ranta [2004] have developedanalternativeapproach,calledFunctionalMorphologywhichisimplementedinHaskell. ItisbasedonHuetstoolkit,Zen,[Huet2003,2004]whichHuetusedtobuildamorphologyfor Sanskrit. In this approach, inflection parameters are defined using algebraic data types,and paradigmtablesareimplementedasfinitefunctionsdefinedoverthesetypes.
Semanticanalysis
ComputationallytractableversionsofMontaguelikesemantictheoriescanbeimplementedinLFP bythedirectencodingofthehigherorderfunctionalsemantics.
4.2PARALLELPROGRAMMING NestedDataParallelism
NestedDPisgreatfor programmersduetoitsmodularity. It opensupamuchwiderrangeof applications:
Sparsearrays,variablegridadaptivemethods([Link]) Divideandconqueralgorithms([Link]) Graphalgorithms([Link],spanningtrees) Physicsenginesforgames,computationalgraphics([Link])
Machinelearning,optimisation,constraintsolving.
[Link]
LOLITA:LOLITAisanaturallanguageprocessing(NLP)systemprovidingbothcoreNLP [Link] capabilities:
1. conversion of English language text to an internal (semantic network based) representationofthetext'smeaning 2. inferencesinthesemanticnetwork 3. conversionofportionsofthesemanticnetworktoEnglish
Linkchk : [Link]
worksbymonitoringtheroutingtableandpingingthegateway(nexthop)ofanetworkinterface. Whenthelinkisupandfunctioningthepingtimeisdisplayedinasmallgtkwindow,otherwisethe [Link].
HWSWP:TheHaskellWebServerWithPlugins(HWSWP)[Link]
inHaskell,originallyimplementedbySimonMarlowandupdatedbyMartinSjogren.
Hoogle : [Link],orby
approximate type signature. The standard web interface to Hoogle is available at [Link]
House:HaskellUser'[Link]
in Haskell,[Link] exploring various ideas relating to lowlevel and systemlevel programming in a highlevel functionallanguage.
[Link]
Haskell 98 is complete and is the current official definition of Haskell. We expect that this languagewillbesupportedinthelongtermevenasnewextensionsareaddedtoHaskell;compilers willcontinuetosupportHaskell98(viaaspecialflag). Thelanguageevolvesandnumerousextensionshavebeenproposedandmanyofthemhavebeen implementedinsomeHaskellsystems;forexamplepatternguards,scopedtypevariables,multi parametertypeclasses,[Link] [Link]'isthenextofficialversion.
