Re: Evaluation Context - Derivation

From: Michel Machado (michel@digirati.com.br)
Date: Mon Oct 23 2006 - 09:26:06 EDT


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From: "Michel Machado" <michel@digirati.com.br>
To: "Assaf Kfoury" <kfoury@cs.bu.edu>
Cc: <cs520@cs.bu.edu>
References: <00e301c6f632$b1451490$16b6a8c0@dark> <453C4618.2010202@cs.bu.edu>
Subject: Re: Evaluation Context - Derivation
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 09:26:06 -0400
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Hi Assaf,

    Since E is just [ ], the output of plug is t. So, I have to use the
previous rules to evaluate t to a value.

    I've thought Evaluation Context were an alternative to the rules we've
been working so far. If not, what is Evaluation Context intended to? Could
you show an application of it?

[ ]'s
Michel Machado

----- Original Message -----
From: "Assaf Kfoury" <kfoury@cs.bu.edu>
To: "Michel Machado" <michel@digirati.com.br>
Cc: <cs520@cs.bu.edu>
Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 12:33 AM
Subject: Re: Evaluation Context - Derivation

> Let t be the term "(lam x. x + 2) 3". The whole of t is a beta-redex. So,
> the corresponding evaluation context E for t is simply [ ], consisting of
> a hole and nothing else. (I write E instead of E_cbv or E_cbn, for
> brevity.)
>
> Here plug(t,[ ]) = t. The whole of t is a beta-redex such that t -> (3 +
> 2).
>
> I said in lecture that the approach to evaluation (or operational
> semantics) based on evaluation contexts is "more scalable". What I meant
> is that if we extend the language by adding new programming features, then
> the operational semantics based on evaluation contexts "more easily scales
> up" to the extended language. This is not a theorem and there is no proof
> for it -- it is just an observation based on experience (mine and that of
> many other researchers in this area), but for which I did not give any
> examples in lecture.
>
> Scalability, i.e. the ability to extend a property from a smaller
> language to a larger language, has nothing to do with efficiency or
> "faster evaluation".
>
> Assaf
>
> Michel Machado wrote:
>
>> Hi Assaf,
>>
>> Could you write the derivation of the term (lam x. x + 2) 3 using
>> evaluation contexts?
>>
>> I don't see what the first Ecvb in plug function should be. I mean,
>> how can I complete the following expression in order to eval that term?
>>
>> plug(t, Ecbv) = plug((lam x. x + 2) 3, ????) = ????
>>
>> Do you have other links about evaluation contexts?
>>
>> You said in last class that evaluation contexts are more scalable, in
>> what sense is it more scalable? Does it lead to faster evaluation?
>>
>> [ ]'s
>> Michel Machado
>
>
>



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