A functional correspondence between evaluators and abstract machines

  • Authors:

  • Mads Sig Ager;Dariusz Biernacki;Olivier Danvy;Jan Midtgaard

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark;University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark;University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark;University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 5th ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Principles and practice of declaritive programming
  • Year:
  • 2003

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Abstract

We bridge the gap between functional evaluators and abstract machines for the λ-calculus, using closure conversion, transformation into continuation-passing style, and defunctionalization.We illustrate this approach by deriving Krivine's abstract machine from an ordinary call-by-name evaluator and by deriving an ordinary call-by-value evaluator from Felleisen et al.'s CEK machine. The first derivation is strikingly simpler than what can be found in the literature. The second one is new. Together, they show that Krivine's abstract machine and the CEK machine correspond to the call-by-name and call-by-value facets of an ordinary evaluator for the λ-calculus.We then reveal the denotational content of Hannan and Miller's CLS machine and of Landin's SECD machine. We formally compare the corresponding evaluators and we illustrate some degrees of freedom in the design spaces of evaluators and of abstract machines for the λ-calculus with computational effects.Finally, we consider the Categorical Abstract Machine and the extent to which it is more of a virtual machine than an abstract machine.