RIFL : a language with filtered iterators

RIFL is a new programming language that enables developers to write only common-case code to robustly process structured inputs. RIFL eliminates the need to manually handle errors with a new control structure, filtered iterators. A filtered iterator treats inputs as collections of input units, iterates over the units, uses the program itself to filter out unanticipated units, and atomically updates program state for each unit. Filtered iterators can greatly simplify the development of robust programs. We formally define filtered iterators in RIFL. The semantics of filtered iterators ensure that each input unit affects program execution atomically. Our benchmarks show that using filtered iterators reduces an average of 41.7% lines of code, or 58.5% conditional clauses and 33.4% unconditional computation, from fully manual implementations.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Shen, Jiasi

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Martin C. Rinard.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/101587

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/101587