A common application of generative programming is building high-performance computational kernels highly tuned to the problem at hand. A typical simple linear algebra kernel is specialized to data representation, loop unrolling factors, and the a priori knowledge (e.g., if a matrix is symmetric, almost tridiagonal, etc). It is tedious and error prone to specialize by hand, writing numerous variations of the same algorithm. A typed staged programming language such as MetaOCaml lets us state a general, obviously correct algorithm and add layers of specializations in a modular way. By ensuring that the generated code always compiles and letting us quickly run it, MetaOCaml makes writing generators less daunting and more productive. The tutorial will answer a simple Shonan Challenge.
By the end of the tutorial, the participants will:
and learn how to
No prior knowledge of MetaOCaml is assumed. It is expected that participants are familiar with a modern functional language, in particular OCaml, F#, SML. The tutorial should also be comprehensible to Haskell programmers.
The MetaOCaml tutorial is intended to be interactive, with exercises and small projects to be done in class. Therefore, it will benefit the participants to have MetaOCaml on their laptops.
Although any version of MetaOCaml (including the legacy one) should be sufficient, the latest version, BER MetaOCaml N100 (which is based on OCaml 4.00.1) is preferred. Code generators could then take advantage of all features of OCaml 4.00.1.
The best way to install BER MetaOCaml N100 is through OPAM, OCaml package manager:
The above web site explains how to install and use OPAM. A number of binary OPAM installation options are available. One can install OPAM without the prior installation of OCaml (OPAM will bring its own OCaml then). After OPAM is installed, BER MetaOCaml can be installed by the command
opam switch 4.00.1+BERThe opam switch command is explained in the Advanced manual
Don't forget to execute the command to update the environment,
which opam switch tells you to do at the end.
BER MetaOCaml can also be installed from source as described
[here](http://okmij.org/ftp/ML/MetaOCaml.html#install).You will need OCaml 4.00.1 distribution (as a .tar archive or as as a git clone)
For the tutorial, byte-code top-level MetaOCaml (metaocaml) will be
sufficient.
Oleg Kiselyov is a Computer Scientist in Monterey, CA. His web site is http://okmij.org/ftp/.