A new C++ back end for ocamlc

236 points
1/21/1970
4 days ago
by glittershark

Comments


QuadmasterXLII

Brilliant stuff. A tip for writing long-running C++: bizzarely, the C++ interpreter completely lacks tail call optimization. As a result, most idiomatic C++ code implements and uses reverse, map, range, filter etc, which don’t blow the stack if you implement them like (forgive the pseudo-code)

  (defun fibreverse (i ret acc)
    (if acc
        (if (> i 0)
            (progn
              (setv call1 (fibreverse (- i 1) (cons (head acc) ret) (tail acc)))
              (setv ret1 (head call1))
              (setv acc1 (head (tail call1)))
              (if acc1
                  (fibreverse (- i 2) (cons (head acc1) ret1) (tail acc1))
                  (pair ret1 acc1)))
            (pair ret acc))
        (pair ret acc)))

  (defun reverse (list) (head (fibreverse 30 nil list)))
Whoever has to maintain your code after you are gone will apprrciate that you used the idiomatic, portable approach instrad of relying on command line flags.
4 days ago

anitil

> Using these more sophisticated data structures, g++ is able to compute the prime numbers below 10000 in only 8 seconds, using a modest 3.1 GiB of memory.

Finally, I can get some primes on my laptop!

4 days ago

foltik

> which produces primes.cpp, containing your program translated to idiomatic, readable C++ code:

As a C++ enjoyer I can confirm this is some excellent idiomatic, readable C++ code.

3 days ago

sheepscreek

Most of it yes, but what about:

    typedef I<((I<((n::val (p::val))>::val) != (I<0>::val))> res;
    };
There is some top class wizardry going on there! I don’t think I’ve ever used conditions in a type definition in C++ :)

Update:

Ah, alright - so that evaluation logic is part of the template, not the code that eventually compiles.

It’s basically offloading some of the higher level language compiler logic to the templating engine. Honestly might be a better time investment than spending more time writing this in the parser.

Now I’m sort of intrigued and inspired to use C++ as a lowering target for elevate (a compiler framework I’ve been working on).

3 days ago

dnmc

Is this the Stephen Dolan of "mov is Turing Complete" fame?

4 days ago

dolmen

Is this the Stephen Dolan creator of jq?

https://jqlang.org/

3 days ago

LeonidasXIV

Yes, its exactly that Stephen Dolan.

3 days ago

[deleted]
3 days ago

loeg

I believe so.

4 days ago

blanched

My eyebrows raised at "C++ is a purely functional language", but I thought it was just a typo.

The rest is fantastic, and I'm glad it wasn't a typo.

3 days ago

zorobo

This made my day, thank you!

4 days ago

classified

> C++ is a purely functional language, with no support for mutable state.

> To run a C++ program, you'll need a C++ interpreter.

I thought 1. April is already over?

3 days ago

ajbt200128

Wow Stephen Dolan never fails to impress

3 days ago

[deleted]
4 days ago

Caum

[flagged]

4 days ago

fayash

Might have missed the joke here. This isn't a traditional C++ backend; it's a C++ Template Metaprogramming backend. The code isn't meant to be run—it’s meant to be compiled. The "output" you see is actually just a compiler error message because the program forces the compiler to calculate primes during type checking. The "runtime performance" the author mentioned is actually just how long g++ takes to crash your ram.

3 days ago

kristjansson

Per TFA C++ is a purely functional, interpreted language. Should be trivial to embed into?

4 days ago

tux3

This account is low-effort spam, the LLM generated comment seems to only look at the title. They should at least feed the contents of the page to the AI if they're going to spam.

3 days ago

ygritte

Accounts like that should be deleted.

3 days ago

hudsonhs

She (Jane Street) is not gonna notice you, bro

4 days ago

shorsher

I believe they already work for Jane Street.

4 days ago

znpy

Interesting fact: it was recently "revealed" in a podcast episode by Bryan Cantrill that Jane Street was one of the early customer of the Oxide Computer company.

3 days ago