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The Essence of Multi-stage Evaluation in LMS

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A List of Successes That Can Change the World

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 9600))

Abstract

Embedded domain-specific languages (DSLs) are the subject of wide-spread interest, and a variety of implementation techniques exist. Some of them have been invented, and some of them discovered. Many are based on a form of generative or multi-stage programming, where the host language program builds up DSL terms during its evaluation. In this paper, we examine the execution model of LMS (Lightweight Modular Staging), a framework for embedded DSLs in Scala, and link it to evaluation in a two-stage lambda calculus. This clarifies the semantics of certain ad-hoc implementation choices, and provides guidance for implementing similar multi-stage evaluation facilities in other languages.

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  1. Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

    Tiark Rompf

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  1. Informatics Forum, University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Sam Lindley

  2. University of Strathclyde , Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Conor McBride

  3. University of Glasgow , Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Phil Trinder

  4. Informatics Forum, University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Don Sannella

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Rompf, T. (2016). The Essence of Multi-stage Evaluation in LMS. In: Lindley, S., McBride, C., Trinder, P., Sannella, D. (eds) A List of Successes That Can Change the World. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9600. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30936-1_17

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