Dyalog '14 - Videos week 9

[Karen|Dyalog]

This week's user meeting videos pertain to parsing and compilation. Go to http://www.dyalog.com/dyalog_14/index.html to read about Dyalog '14 and follow the links to the videos.

• When hundreds of developers work on millions of lines of code comprising tens of thousands of functions, the implicit assumptions made by individual developers need to be formalised to ensure that they are not open to misinterpretation and co-ordinated synchronous updates need to performed. In "Parsing APL for Static Analysis", Anders Schack-Nielsen (Simcorp) explains the new static analysis tool developed at Simcorp to assist with the maintenance of this huge code base. This new tool overcomes many of the difficulties of parsing APL by applying a crucial kind inference algorithm and generating a standard (parsable) BNF from the APL code.http://video.dyalog.com/Dyalog14/?v=7Z0wzY9Oip4

• For the last three years, Aaron Hsu (Indiana University) has been developing his "Co-dfns Compiler". Written in Dyalog, this external compiler can be run from within a Dyalog Session and generates its own code for a given namespace script (effectively it can replace ⎕FIX). Using examples, Aaron goes into the technical details involved in establishing and profiling benchmarks and his hopes for the benefits of combining scalar function fusion with fully-realised GPU execution. http://video.dyalog.com/Dyalog14/?v=8VPQmaJquB0

• When selecting the optimal language for a project, the decision has always involved the trade-off between expressive power and performance. APL has always excelled at the former and Nick now describes the new compiler with which Dyalog are tackling the former in "Reducing Interpreter Overhead". Introduced as experimental functionality at Dyalog version 14.0, the compiler reduces interpretative overhead through dead code elimination, constant folding, idiom recognition, etc. While retaining the caution necessary to ensure that legacy code continues to execute as desired, future plans involve removal of some of its fundamental limitations and the inclusion of scalar (loop) fusion, control structures, non-local names and array morphology inference. http://video.dyalog.com/Dyalog14/?v=ioy4_MIl4VQ

There will be further updates next Friday highlighting the new videos for the week. If you have any requests for specific videos that you’d like to see sooner rather than later then please let us know at usermeeting@dyalog.com and we'll see what we can do.