Programming an interpreter using molecular dynamics

TL;DR

This paper explores programming an interpreter within PGA, a simple algebra of programs, using molecular dynamics primitives to handle dynamic data structures, demonstrating their suitability for such tasks.

Contribution

It introduces a method for programming an interpreter in PGA using molecular dynamics primitives, highlighting their effectiveness for dynamic data structures.

Findings

Molecular dynamics primitives are suitable for programming interpreters.

The approach simplifies handling dynamic data structures in programming.

Demonstrates the use of PGA for implementing interpreters.

Abstract

PGA (ProGram Algebra) is an algebra of programs which concerns programs in their simplest form: sequences of instructions. Molecular dynamics is a simple model of computation developed in the setting of PGA, which bears on the use of dynamic data structures in programming. We consider the programming of an interpreter for a program notation that is close to existing assembly languages using PGA with the primitives of molecular dynamics as basic instructions. It happens that, although primarily meant for explaining programming language features relating to the use of dynamic data structures, the collection of primitives of molecular dynamics in itself is suited to our programming wants.