License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SNAPL.2015.79
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-50186
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2015/5018/
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DeVito, Zachary ; Hanrahan, Pat

The Design of Terra: Harnessing the Best Features of High-Level and Low-Level Languages

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Abstract

Applications are often written using a combination of high-level and low-level languages since it allows performance critical parts to be carefully optimized, while other parts can be written more productively. This approach is used in web development, game programming, and in build systems for applications themselves. However, most languages were not designed with interoperability in mind, resulting in glue code and duplicated features that add complexity. We propose a two-language system where both languages were designed to interoperate. Lua is used for our high-level language since it was originally designed with interoperability in mind. We create a new low-level language, Terra, that we designed to interoperate with Lua. It is embedded in Lua, and meta-programmed from it, but has a low level of abstraction suited for writing high-performance code. We discuss important design decisions - compartmentalized runtimes, glue-free interoperation, and meta-programming features - that enable Lua and Terra to be more powerful than the sum of their parts.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{devito_et_al:LIPIcs:2015:5018,
  author =	{Zachary DeVito and Pat Hanrahan},
  title =	{{The Design of Terra: Harnessing the Best Features of High-Level and Low-Level Languages}},
  booktitle =	{1st Summit on Advances in Programming Languages (SNAPL 2015)},
  pages =	{79--89},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-80-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2015},
  volume =	{32},
  editor =	{Thomas Ball and Rastislav Bodik and Shriram Krishnamurthi and Benjamin S. Lerner and Greg Morrisett},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2015/5018},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-50186},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SNAPL.2015.79},
  annote =	{Keywords: language interoperability, meta-programming, high-performance, Lua}
}

Keywords: language interoperability, meta-programming, high-performance, Lua
Collection: 1st Summit on Advances in Programming Languages (SNAPL 2015)
Issue Date: 2015
Date of publication: 30.04.2015

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