A New Functional-Logic Compiler for Curry: Sprite

TL;DR

Sprite is a new native code compiler for Curry that transforms declarative, non-deterministic programs into efficient imperative code, achieving operational completeness without significant performance penalties.

Contribution

It introduces Sprite, the first operationally complete Curry compiler based on the Fair Scheme, with efficient transformation of non-deterministic programs into imperative code.

Findings

Operational completeness achieved without performance loss

Benchmarking shows competitive efficiency

First implementation of its kind for Curry

Abstract

We introduce a new native code compiler for Curry codenamed Sprite. Sprite is based on the Fair Scheme, a compilation strategy that provides instructions for transforming declarative, non-deterministic programs of a certain class into imperative, deterministic code. We outline salient features of Sprite, discuss its implementation of Curry programs, and present benchmarking results. Sprite is the first-to-date operationally complete implementation of Curry. Preliminary results show that ensuring this property does not incur a significant penalty.