ideas for compiler project

[Eray Ozkural (exa)]

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On Friday 25 January 2002 13:25, Jerzy Karczmarczuk wrote:
> Block recursive Schemes in Matlab are easier than in C++. Implementing
> pyramid algorithms is not difficult. Slicing, reshaping, cloning, etc.
> of matrices are very powerful tools, but they are so imperative, that
> it is not easy to see how to replace them with something "functionally
> purified".
>

I think there is a very simple answer to all this.

I'd considered the same thing; making haskell a front end for 
numerical/optimizations/etc codes. I now recall papers about compiling 
dense/sparse matrix codes in an architecture independent way. To summarize: 
it's better if the system knows about algebra.

However, I don't think that it's feasible to write a haskell library that 
does it, or extend haskell such that it becomes "linear algebra" aware.

I suppose the right direction is to write a compiler/interpreter for a linear 
algebra/numerical language in Haskell!

That language can be made very mathematical, and still much more capable and 
efficient than matlab. Otherwise all you're going to have is another matlab 
clone. The hard part here is of course the design of this specific 
language...

Nevertheless, writing a matlab clone is haskell would be fun as well! It 
could be more extensible and reliable than matlab itself surely.

Thanks,

- -- 
Eray Ozkural (exa) <erayo@cs.bilkent.edu.tr>
Comp. Sci. Dept., Bilkent University, Ankara
www: http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~erayo
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