Code extraction from Agda to HVM
M. Meluzzi (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
J.G.H. Cockx – Mentor (TU Delft - Programming Languages)
L.F.B. Escot – Mentor (TU Delft - Programming Languages)
M.T.J. Spaan – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Algorithmics)
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Abstract
Dependently typed languages such as Agda have the potential to revolutionize the way we write software because they allow the programmer to catch more bugs at compile time than classical languages. Nonetheless, dependently typed languages are hardly used in practice. One of the reasons is the lack of mature compilers for them.
This paper describes the implementation of a new Agda compiler that targets the Higher-Order Virtual Machine (HVM). Firstly we outline the theoretical benefits of using an optimal functional language such as HVM. Secondly, we present the problems we faced and the solutions we devised in the implementation of the agda2hvm compiler. Lastly, we compare our implementation to the current best Agda compilers by running benchmarks and analyzing both time and space performance. We obtained results ranging from our compiler being exponentially faster than the state-of-the-art to being exponentially slower.