arXiv subjects

Dominique Colnet

Publications and source records attributed to Dominique Colnet.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Omega: The Power of Visual Simplicity

We are currently developing an innovative and visually-driven programming language called Omega.Although the Omega code is stored in text files, these files are not intended for manual editing or traditional printing.Furthermore, parsing these files using a context-free grammar is not possible.The parsing of the code and the facilitation of user-friendly manual editing both necessitate a global knowledge of the codebase.Strictly speaking, code visualization is not an integral part of the Omega language; instead, this task is delegated to the editing tools.Thanks to the global knowledge of the code, the editing process becomes remarkably straightforward, with numerous automatic completion features that enhance usability.Omega leverages a visual-oriented approach to encompass all fundamental aspects of software engineering.It offers robust features, including safe static typing, design by contracts, rules for accessing slots, operator definitions, and more,all presented in an intuitively and visually comprehensible manner, eliminating the need for obscure syntax.

cs.PL↗

arXiv2023

Tips for making the most of 64-bit architectures in langage design, libraries or garbage collection

The 64-bit architectures that have become standard today offer unprecedented low-level programming possibilities. For the first time in the history of computing, the size of address registers far exceeded the physical capacity of their bus.After a brief reminder of the possibilities offered by the small size of addresses compared to the available 64 bits,we develop three concrete examples of how the vacant bits of these registers can be used.Among these examples, two of them concern the implementation of a library for a new statically typed programming language.Firstly, the implementation of multi-precision integers, with the aim of improving performance in terms of both calculation speed and RAM savings.The second example focuses on the library's handling of UTF-8 character strings.Here, the idea is to make indexing easier by ignoring the physical size of each UTF-8 characters.Finally, the third example is a possible enhancement of garbage collectors, in particular the mark \& sweep for the object marking phase.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2023

Exploiting array manipulation habits to optimize garbage collection and type flow analysis

A widespread practice to implement a flexible array is to consider the storage area into two parts: the used area, which is already available for read/write operations, and the supply area, which is used in case of enlargement of the array. The main purpose of the supply area is to avoid as much as possible the reallocation of the whole storage area in case of enlargement. As the supply area is not used by the application, the main idea of the paper is to convey the information to the garbage collector, making it possible to avoid completely the marking of the supply area. We also present a simple method to analyze the types of objects, which are stored in an array as well as the possible presence of NULL values within the array. This allows us to better specialize the work of the garbage collector when marking the used area, and also, by transitivity, to improve overall results for type analysis of all expressions of the source code. After introducing several abstract data types, which represent the main arrays concerned by our technique (i.e., zero or variable indexing, circular arrays and hash maps), we measure its impact during the bootstrap of two compilers whose libraries are equipped with these abstract data types. We then measure, on various software products we have not written, the frequency of certain habits of manipulation of arrays, to assess the validity of our approach.

cs.PL↗

arXiv2023

RIP Linked List

Linked lists have long served as a valuable teaching tool in programming. However, the question arises: Are they truly practical for everyday program use? In most cases, it appears that array-based data structures offer distinct advantages, particularly in terms of memory efficiency and,more importantly, execution speed. While it's relatively straightforward to calculate the complexity of operations, gauging actual execution efficiency remains a challenge. This paper addresses this question by introducing a new benchmark. Our study compares various linked list implementations with several array-based alternatives. We also demonstrate the ease of incorporating memory caching for linked lists, enhancing their performance. Additionally, we introduce a new array-based data structure designed to excel in a wide range of operations.

cs.DS↗