Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Challenges for a Trace-Based Just-In-Time Compiler for Haskell

  • Conference paper
Implementation and Application of Functional Languages (IFL 2011)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNTCS,volume 7257))

Abstract

Haskell’s use of lazy evaluation and type classes has endowed it with enhanced expressiveness, but also poses difficult challenges for compiler writers if high performance is a requirement. Most research so far has used static compilation techniques to solve these issues.

In this work, we argue that an implementation based on a virtual machine with a dynamic optimizer based on trace-compilation may be able to remove Haskell’s execution overheads with similar efficacy. This could improve on static techniques in the following ways: (1) more predictable optimization in hot spots, (2) cross-module optimization while retaining binary compatibility, and (3) no need to compile multiple module variants for profiling or debugging.

We present a work-in-progress prototype that implements a trace-based just-in-time compiler for Haskell and identify the missing pieces of the puzzle required to achieve an implementation that can be competitive with state of the art ahead-of-time Haskell compilers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 72.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Bala, V., Duesterwald, E., Banerjia, S.: Transparent dynamic optimization: The design and implementation of dynamo. Tech. Rep. HPL-1999-78, HP Laboratories Cambridge (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bala, V., Duesterwald, E., Banerjia, S.: Dynamo: A Transparent Dynamic Optimization System. In: Proceedings of the ACM SIGPLAN 2000 Conference on Programming Language Design and Implementation, PLDI 2000, pp. 1–12. ACM (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bebenita, M., Brandner, F., Fahndrich, M., Logozzo, F., Schulte, W., Tillmann, N., Venter, H.: SPUR: A Trace-based JIT Compiler for CIL. In: Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Object Oriented Programming Systems Languages and Applications, OOPSLA 2010, pp. 708–725. ACM, New York (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Bebenita, M., Chang, M., Wagner, G., Gal, A., Wimmer, C., Franz, M.: Trace-based compilation in execution environments without interpreters. In: PPPJ 2010, pp. 59–68. ACM, New York (2010)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  5. Bolingbroke, M., Peyton Jones, S.: Supercompilation by Evaluation. In: Proceedings of the Third ACM Haskell Symposium on Haskell, Haskell 2010, pp. 135–146. ACM (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bolz, C.F., Cuni, A., Fijałkowski, M., Leuschel, M., Pedroni, S., Rigo, A.: Allocation Removal by Partial Evaluation in a Tracing JIT. In: Proceedings of the 20th ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Partial Evaluation and Program Manipulation, PEPM 2011, pp. 43–52. ACM (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Bolz, C.F., Cuni, A., Fijalkowski, M., Rigo, A.: Tracing the Meta-Level: PyPy’s Tracing JIT compiler. In: ICOOOLPS 2009: Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on the Implementation, Compilation, Optimization of Object-Oriented Languages and Programming Systems, pp. 18–25 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Boquist, U., Johnsson, T.: The GRIN Project: A Highly Optimising Back End for Lazy Functional Languages. In: Implementation of Functional Languages, pp. 58–84 (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Bruening, D.L.: Effient, Transparent, and Comprehensive Runtime Code Manipulation. Ph.D. thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (September 2004)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Coutts, D., Leshchinskiy, R., Stewart, D.: Stream fusion: From lists to streams to nothing at all. In: Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming, ICFP 2007, pp. 315–326. ACM (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Cytron, R., Ferrante, J., Rosen, B.K., Wegman, M.N., Zadeck, F.K.: Efficiently computing static single assignment form and the control dependence graph. ACM Trans. Program. Lang. Syst. 13(4), 451–490 (1991)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Davis, B., Beatty, A., Casey, K., Gregg, D., Waldron, J.: The Case for Virtual Register Machines. In: Proceedings of the 2003 Workshop on Interpreters, Virtual Machines and Emulators, IVME 2003, pp. 41–49. ACM Press (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Gal, A., Franz, M.: Incremental Dynamic Code Generation with Trace Trees. Tech. Rep. ICS-TR-06-16, University of California, Irvine (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Gal, A., Orendorff, J., Ruderman, J., Smith, E., Reitmaier, R., Bebenita, M., Chang, M., Franz, M., Eich, B., Shaver, M., Anderson, D., Mandelin, D., Haghighat, M.R., Kaplan, B., Hoare, G., Zbarsky, B.: Trace-based Just-in-time type Specialization for Dynamic Languages. In: PLDI 2009, pp. 465–478. ACM (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Gill, A.: Cheap deforestation for non-strict functional languages. Ph.D. thesis, The University of Glasgow (January 1996)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Gill, A., Launchbury, J., Peyton Jones, S.: A short cut to deforestation. In: Proceedings of the Conference on Functional Programming Languages and Computer Architecture, FPCA 1993, pp. 223–232. ACM (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Gustavsson, J.: A type based sharing analysis for update avoidance and optimisation. In: Proceedings of the Third ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming, ICFP 1998, pp. 39–50. ACM (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Hage, J., Holdermans, S., Middelkoop, A.: A generic usage analysis with subeffect qualifiers. In: Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming, ICFP 2007, pp. 235–246. ACM (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Hayashizaki, H., Wu, P., Inoue, H., Serrano, M.J., Nakatani, T.: Improving the Performance of Trace-based Systems by False Loop Filtering. In: ASPLOS 2011, pp. 405–418. ACM (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hölzle, U., Chambers, C., Ungar, D.: Optimizing Dynamically-typed Object-oriented Languages with Polymorphic Inline Caches. In: America, P. (ed.) ECOOP 1991. LNCS, vol. 512, pp. 21–38. Springer, Heidelberg (1991)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  21. Hughes, J.: Why Functional Programming Matters. The Computer Journal 32(2), 98–107 (1989)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Leshchinskiy, R.: Recycle Your Arrays! In: Gill, A., Swift, T. (eds.) PADL 2009. LNCS, vol. 5418, pp. 209–223. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  23. Marlow, S., Peyton Jones, S.: Making a Fast Curry: Push/Enter vs. Eval/Apply for Higher-order Languages. In: Proceedings of the Ninth ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming, ICFP 2004, pp. 4–15. ACM (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Marlow, S., Peyton Jones, S., Singh, S.: Runtime Support for Multicore Haskell. In: Proceedings of the 14th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming, ICFP 2009, pp. 65–78. ACM (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Marlow, S., Yakushev, A.R., Peyton Jones, S.: Faster laziness using dynamic pointer tagging. In: Proceedings of the 12th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming, ICFP 2007, pp. 277–288. ACM (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Mitchell, N.: Rethinking Supercompilation. In: Proceedings of the 15th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming, ICFP 2010, pp. 309–320. ACM (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  27. Pall, M.: LuaJIT 2, http://luajit.org/

  28. Pall, M.: LuaJIT 2.0 intellectual property disclosure and research opportunities. Lua-l mailing list message (2009), http://lua-users.org/lists/lua-l/2009-11/msg00089.html

  29. Peyton Jones, S.: Implementing lazy functional languages on stock hardware: the Spineless Tagless G-machine. Journal of Functional Programming 2, 127–202 (1992)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  30. Peyton Jones, S., Marlow, S.: Secrets of the glasgow haskell compiler inliner. Journal of Functional Programming 12(5), 393–434 (2002)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  31. Peyton Jones, S., Tolmach, A., Hoare, T.: Playing by the rules: rewriting as a practical optimisation technique in GHC. In: Haskell 2001, pp. 203–233 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Rigo, A., Pedroni, S.: PyPy’s Approach to Virtual Machine Construction. In: OOPSLA 2006: Companion to the 21st ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Shi, Y., Gregg, D., Beatty, A., Ertl, M.A.: Virtual machine showdown: Stack versus registers. In: Proceedings of the 1st ACM/USENIX International Conference on Virtual Execution Environments, VEE 2005, pp. 153–163. ACM (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  34. Mogensen, T.Æ.: Types for 0, 1 or Many Uses. In: Clack, C., Hammond, K., Davie, T. (eds.) IFL 1997. LNCS, vol. 1467, pp. 112–122. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  35. Wadler, P.: Deforestation: Transforming programs to eliminate trees. Theoretical Computer Science 73, 231–248 (1990)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  36. Wadler, P., Blott, S.: How to make ad-hoc polymorphism less ad hoc. In: Proceedings of the 16th ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages, POPL 1989, pp. 60–76. ACM (1989)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Wansbrough, K., Peyton Jones, S.: Simple Usage Polymorphism. In: The Third ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Types in Compilation (2000)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, University of Kent, UK

    Thomas Schilling

Authors
  1. Thomas Schilling
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Kansas, 2001 Eaton Hall, 1520 West 15th Street, 66045-7621, Lawrence, KS, USA

    Andy Gill

  2. Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Jurriaan Hage

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Schilling, T. (2012). Challenges for a Trace-Based Just-In-Time Compiler for Haskell. In: Gill, A., Hage, J. (eds) Implementation and Application of Functional Languages. IFL 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7257. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34407-7_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34407-7_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-34406-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-34407-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation