Lexical Effect Handlers, Directly

Lexically scoping effect handlers is a language-design idea that equips algebraic effects with a modular semantics: it enables local-reasoning principles without giving up on the control-flow expressiveness that makes effect handlers powerful. However, we observe that existing implementations risk i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of ACM on programming languages Vol. 8; no. OOPSLA2; pp. 1670 - 1698
Main Authors: Ma, Cong, Ge, Zhaoyi, Lee, Edward, Zhang, Yizhou
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York, NY, USA ACM 08.10.2024
Subjects:
Assembly languages
Compilers
Concurrent programming structures
Control primitives
Control structures
Coroutines
Formal language definitions
Functional constructs
Functional languages
Operational semantics
Software and its engineering
Theory of computation
Salt
Lexa
effect handlers
continuations
compiler correctness
stack switching
Algebraic effects
ISSN:2475-1421, 2475-1421
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Lexically scoping effect handlers is a language-design idea that equips algebraic effects with a modular semantics: it enables local-reasoning principles without giving up on the control-flow expressiveness that makes effect handlers powerful. However, we observe that existing implementations risk incurring costs akin to the run-time search for dynamically scoped handlers. This paper presents a compilation strategy for lexical effect handlers, adhering to the lexical scoping principle and targeting a language with low-level control over stack layout. Key aspects of this approach are formalized and proven correct. We embody the ideas in a language called Lexa: the Lexa compiler translates high-level effect handling to low-level stack switching. We evaluate the Lexa compiler on a set of benchmarks; the results suggest that it generates efficient code, reducing running-time complexity from quadratic to linear in some cases.
ISSN:2475-1421
2475-1421
DOI:10.1145/3689770