Re: [Caml-list] Interpreting a language with (sparse) arrays explicitly indexed

[Gabriel Scherer <gabriel.scherer@gmail.com>]

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What about hash tables ?

  | Val_table of (value, value) Hashtbl.t

If you have caml closures in your values (not in Val_closure but in
Val_primitive), it is maybe not appropriate to use the default hash function
that would choke on them. You should rather define your own hashing function
--but defining a mutually recursive `value` type and Hashtable.make
application will be delicate -- or change your representation of primitives
to avoid ocaml functions (by reifying them into a concrete datatype for
example).

On Tue, Oct 18, 2011 at 1:12 AM, Diego Olivier Fernandez Pons <
dofp.ocaml@gmail.com> wrote:

>      Caml-list,
>
> I have to write an interpreter for a language that has arrays explicitly
> indexed by anything that can be sequential (list, range, set)
>
>     {string} airports = {"ATL", "JFK"};
>     range index = 1 .. 2;
>     tuple recordAirport { airport : string; id : int }
>     {recordAirport} otherAiports = { <"ATL", 12345>, <"JFK", 42>};
>
>     int myArray [airports][index] = [[1, 2], [3, 4]];
>     string myArray2 [a in recordAirports][i in index] = (i < a.id) ?
> "unknown" : a.airport ;
>     int mySliceOfArray [a in recordAirports]  = sum (i in index)
> myArray[a.airport][i];
>
> Usually the trick in interpreter implementation is to transform everything
> back to "one-dimensional" objects
> - simple types
> - inductive constructions for lists
> - curried functions
>
> For instance in the book "Le langage Caml" the return type of the eval
> function is
>
> type value =
>    | Val_number of int
>    | Val_boolean of bool
>    | Val_pair of value * value
>    | Val_nil
>    | Val_cons of value * value
>    | Val_closure of closure
>    | Val_primitive of value -> value
> and closure = { definition: (pattern * expression) list; mutable
> environnement: environnement }
> and environnement == (string * value) list
>
> I don't see however how I am going to represent a type Val_Array given that
> the indexes can be of arbitrary type and in arbitrary number.
> I haven't found either how to transform the arrays into inductive types
> like lists to avoid the issue.
>
> Any suggestions ?
>
>         Diego Olivier
>

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