Functional Programming Languages and Computer Architecture

This book offers a comprehensive view of the best and the
latest work in functional programming. It is the proceedings
of a major international conference and contains 30 papers
selected from 126 submitted. A number of themes emerge. One
is a growing interest in types: powerful type systems or
type checkers supporting overloading, coercion, dynamic
types, and incremental inference; linear types to optimize
storage, and polymorphic types to optimize semantic
analysis. The hot topic of partial evaluation is well
represented: techniques for higher-order binding-time
analysis, assuring termination of partial evaluation, and
improving the residual programs a partial evaluator
generates. The thorny problem of manipulating state in
functional languages is addressed: one paper even argues
that parallel programs with side-effects can be "more
declarative" than purely functional ones. Theoretical work
covers a new model of types based on projections,
parametricity, a connection between strictness analysis and
logic, and a discussion of efficient implementations of the
lambda-calculus. The connection with computer architecture
and a variety of other topics are also addressed.