article

Free access

Lively linear Lisp: “look ma, no garbage!”

Author:

Henry G. BakerAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Volume 27, Issue 8

Pages 89 - 98

https://doi.org/10.1145/142137.142162

Published: 01 August 1992 Publication History

Abstract

Linear logic has been proposed as one solution to the problem of garbage collection and providing efficient "update-in-place" capabilities within a more functional language. Linear logic conserves accessibility, and hence provides a mechanical metaphor which is more appropriate for a distributed-memory parallel processor in which copying is explicit. However, linear logic's lack of sharing may introduce significant inefficiencies of its own.We show an efficient implementation of linear logic called Linear Lisp that runs within a constant factor of non-linear logic. This Linear Lisp allows RPLACX operations, and manages storage as safely as a non-linear Lisp, but does not need a garbage collector. Since it offers assignments but no sharing, it occupies a twilight zone between functional languages and imperative languages. Our Linear Lisp Machine offers many of the same capabilities as combinator/graph reduction machines, but without their copying and garbage collection problems.

References

[1]

Abadi, M., and Plotkin, G.D. "A Logical View of Composition and Refinement". Proc. ACM POPL 18 (Jan. 1991), 323-332.

Digital Library

[2]

Arvind, and Nikhil, R.S. "Executing a program on the MIT tagged-token dataflow architecture". PARLE'87, v. II, Springer LNCS 259, 1987, 1-29.

Digital Library

[3]

Arvind, and Nikhil, R.S., and Pingali K.K. "I-Structures: Data Structures for Parallel Computing". ACM TOPLAS 11, 4 (Oct. 1989), 598-632.

Digital Library

[4]

Baker, H.G., and Hewitt, C. "The Incremental Garbage Collection of Processes". Proc. ACM Symp. on AI & Progr. Langs., Sigplan Not. 12, 8 (Aug. 1977), 55-59.

Digital Library

[5]

Baker, H.G. "Shallow Binding in Lisp 1.5". CACM 21, 7 (July 1978), 565-569.

Digital Library

[6]

Baker, H.G. "Unify and Conquer (Garbage, Updating, Aliasing, ..) in Functional Languages". Proc. 1990 ACM Conf. on Lisp and Functional Progr., June 1990, 218-226.

Digital Library

[7]

Baker, H.G. "Equal Rights for Functional Objects". Tech. Rept., Nimble Computer, 1991.

[8]

Baker, H.G. "Shallow Binding Makes Functional Arrays Fast". ACM Sigplan Not. 26, 8 (Aug. 1991), 145-147.

Digital Library

[9]

Baker, H.G. "The Boyer Benchmark at Warp Speed". ACM Lisp Pointers, 1992, to appear.

Digital Library

[10]

Barth, J. "Shifting garbage collection overhead to compile time". CACM 20, 7 (July 1977), 513-518.

Digital Library

[11]

Barth, Paul S., et al. "M-Structures: Extending a Parallel, Non-strict, Functional Language with State". Proc. Funct. Progr. Langs. & Computer Arch., LNCS 523, Springer-Verlag, Aug. 1991, 538-568.

Digital Library

[12]

Bawden, Alan. "Connection Graphs". Proc. ACM Conf. on Lisp & Funct. Progr., Camb., MA, Aug. 1986, 258-265.

Digital Library

[13]

Beeler, M., Gosper, R.W, and Schroeppel, R. "HAKMEM". AI Memo 239, MIT AI Lab., Feb. 1972. Important items: 102, 103, 104, 149, 150, 161, 166, 172.

Digital Library

[14]

Berry, G., and Boudol, G. "The Chemical Abstract Machine". ACM POPL 17, San Francisco, CA, Jan. 1990, 81-94.

Digital Library

[15]

Bloss, A. "Update Analysis and the Efficient Implementation of Functional Aggregates". 4'th Conf. on Funct. Progr. & Comp. Arch., London, Sept. 1989, 26-38.

Digital Library

[16]

Chase, David. "Garbage Collection and Other Optimizations". PhD Thesis, Rice U. Comp. Sci. Dept., Nov. 1987.

Digital Library

[17]

Collins, G.E. "A method for overlapping and erasure of lists". CACM 3, 12 (Dec. 1960), 655-657.

Digital Library

[18]

Ershov, A.P. "On Programming of Arithmetic Operations". Doklady, AN USSR 118, 3 (1958), 427-430, transl. Friedman, M.D., CACM 1, 8 (Aug. 1958), 3-6.

Digital Library

[19]

Fateman, Richard J. "Endpaper: FRPOLY: A Benchmark Revisited". Lisp & Symbolic Comput. 4 (1991), 155-164.

Digital Library

[20]

Gabriel, R.P. Performance and Evaluation of Lisp Systems. MIT Press, 1985.

Digital Library

[21]

Gabriel, R.P. "The Why of Y". ACM Lisp Pointers 2, 2 (Oct.-Dec. 1988), 15-25.

[22]

Girard, J.-Y. "Linear Logic". Theoretical Computer Sci. 50 (1987), 1-102.

Digital Library

[23]

Goto, Eiichi. "Monocopy and Associative Algorithms in an Extended Lisp". Tech. Rep. 74-03, Info. Sci. Lab., U. Tokyo, April 1974.

[24]

Goto, Eiichi, and Kanada, Yasumasa. "Hashing Lemmas on Time Complexities with Applications to Formula Manipulation". Proc. ACM SYMSAC'76, Yorktown Hgts., NY, 1976.

Digital Library

[25]

Goto, E., et al. "Parallel Hashing Algorithms". Info. Proc. Let. 6, 1 (Feb. 1977), 8-13.

[26]

Goto, E., et al. "Design of a Lisp Machine -- FLATS". Proc. ACM Lisp & Funct. Progr. Conf., 1982, 208-215.

Digital Library

[27]

Harms, D.E., and Weide, B.W. "Copying and Swapping: Influences on the Design of Reusable Software Components". IEEE Trans. SW Engrg. 17, 5 (May 1991), 424-435.

Digital Library

[28]

Hederman, Lucy. "Compile Time Garbage Collection". MS Thesis, Rice University Computer Science Dept., Sept. 1988.

[29]

Herlihy, Maurice. "Wait-Free Synchronization". ACM TOPLAS 11, 1 (Jan. 1991), 124-149.

Digital Library

[30]

Inoue, K., et al. "Analysis of functional programs to detect run-time garbage cells". ACM TOPLAS 10, 4 (Oct. 1988), 555-578.

Digital Library

[31]

Johnsson, T. "Efficient compilation of lazy evaluation". Proc. 1984 ACM Conf. on Compiler Constr., Montreal, 1984.

Digital Library

[32]

Johnsson, T. "Lambda lifting: transforming programs to recursive equations". Proc. FPCA, Nancy, France, Springer LNCS 201, 1985, 190-203.

Digital Library

[33]

Johnsson, T. "Parallel Evaluation of Functional Programs: The <v, G>-machine approach". Proc. PARLE'91, v. I., Springer LNCS 505, Berlin, 1991, 1-5.

Digital Library

[34]

Jones, S.B., and Le Metayer, D. "Compile-time garbage collection by sharing analysis". ACM Funct. Progr. Langs. & Comp. Arch., 1989, 54-74.

Digital Library

[35]

Kieburtz, Richard B. "Programming without pointer variables". Proc. Conf. on Data: Abstraction, Definition and Structure, Sigplan Not. 11 (special issue 1976), 95-107.

Digital Library

[36]

Kieburtz, Richard B. "The G-machine: a fast, graph-reduction evaluator". Proc. IFIP FPCA, Nancy, France, 1985.

Digital Library

[37]

Kieburtz, Richard B. "A RISC Architecture for Symbolic Computation". Proc. ASPLOS II, Sigplan Not. 22, 10 (Oct. 1987), 146-155.

Digital Library

[38]

Knight, Tom. "An Architecture for Mostly Functional Languages". Proc. ACM Conf. on Lisp & Funct. Progr., MIT, Aug. 1986, 105-112.

Digital Library

[39]

Lafont, Yves. "The Linear Abstract Machine". Theor. Computer Sci. 59 (1988), 157-180.

Digital Library

[40]

Lafont, Yves. "Interaction Nets". ACM POPL 17, San Franciso, CA, Jan. 1990, 95-108.

Digital Library

[41]

Lafont, Yves. "The Paradigm of Interaction (Short Version)". Unpubl. manuscript, July 12, 1991, 18p.

[42]

Lieberman, H., and Hewitt, C. "A Real-Time Garbage Collector Based on the Lifetimes of Objects". CACM 26, 6 (June 1983), 419-429.

Digital Library

[43]

MacLennan, B.J. "Values and Objects in Programming Languages". Sigplan Not. 17, 2 (Dec. 1982), 70-79.

Digital Library

[44]

Mairson, H.G. "Deciding ML Typability is Complete for Deterministic Exponential Time". 17'th ACM POPL, Jan. 1990, 382-401.

Digital Library

[45]

Mason, Ian A. The Semantics of Destructive Lisp. Ctr. for the Study of Lang. & Info., Stanford, CA, 1986.

Digital Library

[46]

Moon, D. "Garbage Collection in a Large Lisp System". ACM Symp. on Lisp and Functional Prog., Austin, TX, 1984, 235-246.

Digital Library

[47]

Morris, J.M. "A proof of the Schorr-Waite algorithm". In Broy, M., and Schmidt, G., Eds. Theoretical Foundations of Programming Methodology. NATA Advanced Study Inst., D. Reidel, 1982, 43-51.

[48]

Myers, Eugene W. "Efficient Applicative Data Types". ACM POPL 11, Salt Lake City, UT, Jan. 1984, 66-75.

Digital Library

[49]

Peyton-Jones, S.L. The Implementation of Functional Programming Languages. Prentice-Hall, New York, 1987.

[50]

Rees, J. and Clinger, W., et al. "Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme". Sigplan Notices 21, 12 (Dec. 1986), 37-79.

Digital Library

[51]

Ruggieri, Cristina; and Murtagh, Thomas P. "Lifetime analysis of dynamically allocated objects". ACM POPL '88, 285-293.

Digital Library

[52]

Schorr, H., and Waite, W.M. "An efficient machine-independent procedure for garbage collection in various list structures". CACM 10, 8 (Aug. 1967), 501-506.

Digital Library

[53]

Strom, R.E., et al. "A recoverable object store". IBM Watson Research Ctr., 1988.

[54]

Suzuki, N. "Analysis of Pointer 'Rotation'". CACM 25, 5 (May 1982) 330-335.

Digital Library

[55]

Terashima, M., and Goto, E. "Genetic Order and Compactifying Garbage Collectors". IPL 7, 1 (Jan. 1978), 27-32.

[56]

Turner, D. "A New Implementation Technique for Applicative Languages". SW--Pract.&Exper. 9 (1979), 31-49.

[57]

Wadler, Philip. "Linear types can change the world!". IFIP TC2 Conf. on Progr. Concepts & Meths., April 1990.

[58]

Wadler, Philip. "Is there a use for linear logic?". Proc. ACM PEPM'91, New Haven, June, 1991, 255-273.

Digital Library

[59]

Wakeling, D., and Runciman, C. "Linearity and Laziness". Proc. Funct. Progr. & Computer Arch., LNCS 523, Springer-Verlag, Aug. 1991, 215-240.

Digital Library

[60]

Weizenbaum, J. "Symmetric List Processor". CACM 6, 9 (Dec. 1963), 524-544.

Digital Library

[61]

White, Jon L. "Address/Memory Management for a Gigantic LISP Environment, or GC Considered Harmful". Proc. 1980 Lisp Conf., Stanford U., Aug. 1980, 119-127.

Digital Library

[62]

Wilson, Paul R. Two comprehensive virtual copy mechanisms. Master's Thesis, U. Ill. @ Chicago, 1988.

[63]

Wilson, P.R., and Moher, T.G. "Demonic memory for process histories". Proc. Sigplan PLDI, June 1989.

Digital Library

[64]

Wilson, Paul R. "Some Issues and Strategies in Heap Management and Memory Hierarchies". ACM Sigplan Not. 26, 3 (March 1991), 45-52.

Digital Library

[65]

Wise, D.S., and Friedman, D.P. "The one-bit reference count". BIT 17, 3 (Sept. 1977), 351-359.

[66]

Wise, David S. "Design for a Multiprocessing Heap with On-board Reference Counting". Proc. Funct. Progr. Langs & Computer Arch., Nancy, France, LNCS 201, Springer, Sept., 1985, 289-304.

Digital Library

Cited By

Choudhury VKarwowski JSabry A(2022)Symmetries in reversible programming: from symmetric rig groupoids to reversible programming languagesProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34986676:POPL(1-32)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3498667
Carette JJames RSabry A(2022)Embracing the laws of physics: Three reversible models of computation10.1016/bs.adcom.2021.11.009(15-63)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.adcom.2021.11.009
Marshall DVollmer MOrchard D(2022)Linearity and Uniqueness: An Entente CordialeProgramming Languages and Systems10.1007/978-3-030-99336-8_13(346-375)Online publication date: 29-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99336-8_13
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Lively linear Lisp: “look ma, no garbage!”
1. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Compilers
      1. Interpreters
    2. General programming languages
      1. Language features
        Data types and structures
      2. Language types
2. Theory of computation
  1. Formal languages and automata theory

Recommendations

Standard LISP (reprint)

When it was first formulated in 1960, (1) the programming language LISP was a truly machine independent language. However, even the earliest computer implementation encountered problems in input-output control and the handling of free variables which ...
On compiling embedded languages in LISP
LFP '80: Proceedings of the 1980 ACM conference on LISP and functional programming

In INTERLISP we find a number of embedded languages such as the iterative statement and the pattern match facility in the CLISP package, the editor and makefile languages and so forth. We will in this paper concentrate on the problem of extending the ...
Down with Emacs Lisp: dynamic scope analysis
ICFP '01: Proceedings of the sixth ACM SIGPLAN international conference on Functional programming

It is possible to translate code written in Emacs Lisp or another Lisp dialect which uses dynamic scoping to a more modern programming language with lexical scoping while largely preserving structure and readability of the code. The biggest obstacle to ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM SIGPLAN Notices

ACM SIGPLAN Notices Volume 27, Issue 8

Aug. 1992

99 pages

ISSN:0362-1340

EISSN:1558-1160

DOI:10.1145/142137

Editor:
Richard L. Wexelblat

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 1992 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 August 1992

Published in SIGPLAN Volume 27, Issue 8

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

56
Total Citations
View Citations
8,028
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)613
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)41

Reflects downloads up to 23 Dec 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Choudhury VKarwowski JSabry A(2022)Symmetries in reversible programming: from symmetric rig groupoids to reversible programming languagesProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/34986676:POPL(1-32)Online publication date: 12-Jan-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3498667
Carette JJames RSabry A(2022)Embracing the laws of physics: Three reversible models of computation10.1016/bs.adcom.2021.11.009(15-63)Online publication date: 2022
https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.adcom.2021.11.009
Marshall DVollmer MOrchard D(2022)Linearity and Uniqueness: An Entente CordialeProgramming Languages and Systems10.1007/978-3-030-99336-8_13(346-375)Online publication date: 29-Mar-2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99336-8_13
An SSingh RMisailovic SSamanta R(2019)Augmented example-based synthesis using relational perturbation propertiesProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/33711244:POPL(1-24)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3371124
Darais DSweet ILiu CHicks M(2019)A language for probabilistically oblivious computationProceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages10.1145/33711184:POPL(1-31)Online publication date: 20-Dec-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3371118
Bhattacharjee STang JPoddar SIbrahim MKarri RChakrabarty K(2019)Bio-chemical Assay Locking to Thwart Bio-IP TheftACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems10.1145/336557925:1(1-20)Online publication date: 22-Nov-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3365579
Berger EHollenbeck CMaj PVitek OVitek J(2019)On the Impact of Programming Languages on Code QualityACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/334057141:4(1-24)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3340571
Tan ZLi YLi QZhang ZLi ZLu S(2018)Supporting Mobile VR in LTE NetworksACM SIGMETRICS Performance Evaluation Review10.1145/3292040.321964746:1(74-74)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3292040.3219647
Jahani EKrafft PSuhara YMoro EPentland A(2018)ScamCoins, S*** Posters, and the Search for the Next BitcoinTMProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/32743482:CSCW(1-28)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3274348
Carette JChen CChoudhury VSabry A(2018)From Reversible Programs to Univalent Universes and BackElectronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science10.1016/j.entcs.2018.03.013336(5-25)Online publication date: Apr-2018
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.entcs.2018.03.013
Show More Cited By

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Issue’s Table of Contents