Reversible computing from a programming language perspective

Software plays a central role in all aspects of reversible computing systems, and a variety of reversible programming languages have been developed. This presentation highlights the principles and main ideas of reversible computing viewed from a programming language perspective with a focus on clean...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Theoretical computer science Vol. 953; p. 113429
Main Authors: Glück, Robert, Yokoyama, Tetsuo
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier B.V 10.04.2023
Subjects:
Compute-uncompute
Function injectivization
Inverse interpretation
Metacomputation
Program inversion
Program reversibilization
Reversible computing
Reversible programming
Reversible computing
Inverse interpretation
Compute-uncompute
Metacomputation
Function injectivization
Reversible programming
Program reversibilization
Program inversion
ISSN:0304-3975, 1879-2294
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Software plays a central role in all aspects of reversible computing systems, and a variety of reversible programming languages have been developed. This presentation highlights the principles and main ideas of reversible computing viewed from a programming language perspective with a focus on clean reversible languages. They are the building material for software that can reap the benefits of reversible hardware and interesting in their own right. Reversible computing is situated within programming languages in general, and the relevant concepts are elaborated, including computability, injectivization and reversibilization. Features representative for many reversible languages are presented, such as reversible updates, reversible iterations, and access to a program's inverse semantics. Metaprogramming methods of particular importance to reversible programming, are introduced, including program inversion and inverse interpretation. Our presentation is independent of a particular language, although primarily the reversible language, Janus, will be used in examples. •Overview of principles and main ideas of reversible computing.•Coherent explanatory framework from a programming language perspective.•Five major hypotheses of programmable reversible computing systems.•Function injectivization, program reversibilization, compute-uncompute are elaborated.•Cornerstones of clean reversible languages and relevant metaprograms are presented.
ISSN:0304-3975
1879-2294
DOI:10.1016/j.tcs.2022.06.010