Programming Languages: some news for the last N years

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Programming Languages:
Some news for the last N
years.
Ruslan Shevchenko
<ruslan@shevchenko.kiev.ua>
@rssh1
https://github.com/rssh

Programming languages:
❖ Industry/Academic
❖ what’s hot now:
❖ academic research from 70-th
❖ ‘freaky’ things from 2000
Where is progress ?
What we will see in industry from today-s academic ?
from today-s freaks ?

Statement from 80-th:
Full change of language and tools during 2-3 years
Actual situation in 2014:
Top 11 languages are the same: 2010 - 2014
http://dou.ua

Can we track progress in PL ?
❖ Estimations
❖ Code size / project duration

If we think about ideal language ?

Make all good
What is:
❖ all ?
❖ good ?
❖ make ?
• Object and processes from real world,
represented in computer
• Operations with this representation.
• Mapping of result back to real world

Syntax [parsing/ast manipulation]
Semantics [type systems]
“New” functionality

Syntax
Traditional approach: context free grammars
Syntax structure is fixed
Now in practice:
Context-dependent keywords (C++ )
Multi-language programming

Extensible syntax
Seed 7: Syntax definitions of operations with priority
syntax expr: .(). + .() is -> 7;
syntax expr: .loop.().until.().do.().end.loop is -> 25;
Nemerle: macroses
macro for (init, cond, change, body)
syntax ("for", "(", init, ";", cond, ";", change, ")", body)
XL Compiler plugins

Extensible syntax
// Idris
boolCase : (x:Bool) -> Lazy a -> Lazy a -> a;
boolCase True t e = t;
boolCase False t e = e;
syntax "if" [test] "then" [t] "else" [e] = boolCase test t e;
syntax "for" {x} "in" [xs] ":" [body] = forLoop xs (x => body)
// introducing new binding
// DSL — map object to Idrix language constructions

XL: Concept programming
Active library = Library + compiler plugin
Concept in real life. In computer - representation
Metrics:
Syntax noise / signal
Bandwidth
what part of code is about business
what part of concept is represented
Complexity source

Articulate programming
Avail: SmallTalk-based, static typing
Try to deduce ‘needed’ value from context.
like scala implicit, but *all* is implicit

Syntax
Multi-language programming
❖ Do nothing (mess)
❖ Embed all in one language [lifted evaluation]
❖ (like LINQ or scala slick or idris DSL)
❖ Define and use ‘part of grammar’ with type.

Wyvern: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aldrich/wyvern/
//Type-specific tokens
let imageBase : URL = <images.example.com>
let bgImage : URL = <%imageBase%/background.png>
new : SearchServer
def resultsFor(searchQuery, page)
serve(~) (* serve : HTML -> Unit *)
>html
>head
>title Search Results
>style ~
body { background-image: url(%bgImage%) }
#search { background-color: ..

Type Systems
Static/Dynamic —-> Gradual
Dynamic:
❖ clojure -> core.typed
❖ python -> type annotations
❖ groovy -> type annotations
Static:
❖ Dynamic type
fromDynamic[T]: D => Option[T]
toDynamic[T](x: T) => Dynamic
needed for reflective typing

Clojure: core/typed.
(ann clojure.core/first
(All [x]
(Fn [(Option (EmptySeqable x)) -> nil]
[(NonEmptySeqable x) -> x]
[(Option (Seqable x)) -> (Option x)]))
)
- static empty -> nil
- static non-empty -> not-nil
- unknown -> x or nil,

Type Systems
typing => static analysis at compile-time
compilation => optimization of interpretation

Non-dependent types example
trait CInt { type Succ <: CInt }
trait CPos extends CInt
trait CSucc[P <: CPos] extends CInt {
type Succ = CSucc[CSucc[Int]]
}
final class _0 extends CPos {
type Succ = CSucc[0]
}
type _1 = _0#Succ
type _2 = _1#Succ
// church numeration

Non-dependent types example
trait LimitedVector[+A, N<:CInt]
{
…………
def append[B <: A, NX <:CInt](x: LimitedVector[B,NX]):
LimitedVector[B,Plus[N,NX]]
…………..
}
// shapeless full of such tricks

Dependent types example
trait LimitedVector[+A, n:Int]
{
…………
def append[B <: A, nx:Int](x: LimitedVector[B,nx]):
LimitedVector[B, n+nx]
…………….
}
// warning: pseudocode, impossible in scala

Dependent types example
data Vect : Nat -> Type -> Type
where
Nil : Vect 0 a
(::) : a -> Vect k a -> Vect (k+1) a
// Idris
Calculus of constructions: Idris, Coq, Agda

Dependent types:
Track properties, which can be proven by structural induction
Function, which call SQL inside no more than 3 times.
Resource with balanced acquire/release for all execution paths.
Type depends from value <=> Type must be available as value
data Parity : Nat -> Type where
even : Parity (n + n)
odd : Parity (S (n + n))

Dependent types:
intuitionistic logic
absence (p || ~p)
Type:Type - logical bomb

// note: it is possible to make efficient type-level numbers in scala
Details: Stefan Zeiger. Type-Level Computations in Scala
❖ slides
❖ http://slick.typesafe.com/talks/scalaio2014/Type-Level_Computations.pdf
❖ code:
❖ https://github.com/szeiger/ErasedTypes
❖ idea:
❖ define type-alias with argument for operation.
❖ perform term-level computation and ‘unsafe cast’ to this alias.
abstract class CNat
{
type Succ
type + [T <: CNat]
def value: Int
……………..
def +[T <: CNat](x:n): +[T] = CPos(value+x.value).asInstanceOf[+T]
}

Effects tracking:
No more IO monads !!!!
List of effects as part of type.
• Idris
• Eff

Effects:
- calculated as extension to ‘normal’ type. (as type-index or yet another
dimension)
• possible traces of operations
• set of operations.
• set of resources
• set of exceptions
• atomicity
• delimited specs
• ….
type channel = effect
operation read : unit -> string
operation write : string -> unit
end
// Eff
//Handler - effects interpreter
let accumulate = handler
| std#write x k -> let (v, xs) = k () in (v, x :: xs)
| val v -> (v, [])

Knowledge-based programming
Let’s add structured information about problem domain.
Wolfram Alpha:
Mathematics domain. Near 5000 built-in functions.
Household lexicon: approx 4000
Differ from community repository: all interfaces are consistent

Make all good
- Syntax, defined in problem-domain specific library
- Vocabulary simular to one in natural language
- Advanced type theory with refinement specs.

Implementation
Compilation/Interpretation [both - hard]
VM/System
JVM no continuations (?)
LLVM non-trivial gc (?)
Complexity.
both - impossible without divergence
Let’s rewrite all with callbacks, because it’s more easy than fix JVM/OS

CORBA story:
Let’s do remote and local call undistinguished (1996)
Local calls: fast
Remote calls: slow
Common antipattern: build fine-grained object model in RPC
Akka:
Let’s do remote and local call undistinguished (2014)
// hope, now things will move forward more accurate

So, we must
choose one level of abstraction
or
build family of systems
otherwise — abstraction leaks

Ok, assume we build ideal language. (in academia or as freaks)
When it will be in industry ?
❖ Success in sense of adoption => evolution slowdown
Haskell:
❖ avoid success of all costs => be open for evolution,
live in a water
Scala: from research to engineering
(LMS, attempt to remove skolem types, … etc )

Sociology of programming languages
Leo Meyerovich
Average ‘incubation’ period before wider adoption: 12 years
before - specialized in some niche
Adoption => social, marketing ….., not technical.

What will be in industry tomorrow: landscape now.
General purpose: need some time for current adoption
JVM land: scala, clojure
Trends: integrating other paradigms
System: D / Rust instead C++ (?)
Application/ Scripting: [ place is vacant ]
// JavaScript successor [?]

What will be not in industry tomorrow:
academic/OSS
Better VM-s
New paradigms
Depends from you
// niche as social issue

Thanks.
ruslan@shevchenko.kiev.ua
https://github.com/rssh
@rssh1
If you build something interesting - ping me.

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