Revisiting the Futamura Projections: A Diagrammatic Approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a diagrammatic approach to the Futamura Projections, aiming to clarify their recurring patterns and enhance understanding of automatic compiler generation in modern language implementation tools.

Contribution

It presents a novel diagram scheme that simplifies the complex and abstract Futamura Projections, making them more accessible and analyzable in the context of new compiler tools.

Findings

Diagrams reveal recurring patterns in Futamura Projections

Enhanced accessibility for understanding compiler generation

Facilitates analysis of new language implementation tools

Abstract

The advent of language implementation tools such as PyPy and Truffle/Graal have reinvigorated and broadened interest in topics related to automatic compiler generation and optimization. Given this broader interest, we revisit the Futamura Projections using a novel diagram scheme. Through these diagrams we emphasize the recurring patterns in the Futamura Projections while addressing their complexity and abstract nature. We anticipate that this approach will improve the accessibility of the Futamura Projections and help foster analysis of those new tools through the lens of partial evaluation.