Abstract
Falafel, a functional programming language with first-class arrays, is being developed at the University of Saskatchewan. It is an experimental vehicle for work in language definition and implementation. This paper discusses some of the fundamental design decisions that underlie the language and its implementations. Falafel has drawn ideas from array-based programming languages (APL [Iverson] and Nial [Jenkins]_[More]), functional programming languages (Miranda™ [Turner] and Haskell [Haskell]), and dataflow programming languages (Id [Nikhil]_and Sisal [Sisal]). This paper discusses the nature of Falafel’s value space, the structure of arrays, the role of strong polymorphic typing, the use of lazy evaluation, and a means of partial definition of arrays. A full definition of Falafel is to be published separately.
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McCrosky, C., Roy, K., Sailor, K. (1991). Falafel: Arrays in a Functional Language. In: Mullin, L.M.R., Jenkins, M., Hains, G., Bernecky, R., Gao, G. (eds) Arrays, Functional Languages, and Parallel Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4002-1_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4002-1_6
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