Abstract
Multi-stage programming (MSP) is a paradigm for developing generic software that does not pay a runtime penalty for this generality. This is achieved through concise, carefully-designed language extensions that support runtime code generation and program execution. Additionally, type systems for MSP languages are designed to statically ensure that dynamically generated programs are type-safe, and therefore require no type checking after they are generated.
This hands-on tutorial is aimed at the reader interested in learning the basics of MSP practice. The tutorial uses a freely available MSP extension of OCaml called MetaOCaml, and presents a detailed analysis of the issues that arise in staging an interpreter for a small programming language. The tutorial concludes with pointers to various resources that can be used to probe further into related topics.
Supported by NSF ITR-0113569 and NSF CCR-0205542.
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Taha, W. (2004). A Gentle Introduction to Multi-stage Programming. In: Lengauer, C., Batory, D., Consel, C., Odersky, M. (eds) Domain-Specific Program Generation. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3016. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-25935-0_3
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