3. Language Reference¶
This reference seeks to describe every construct in the Futhark language. It is not presented in a tutorial fashion, but rather intended for quick lookup and documentation of subtleties. For this reason, it is not written in a bottom-up manner, and some concepts may be used before they are fully defined. It is a good idea to have a basic grasp of Futhark (or some other functional programming language) before reading this reference. An ambiguous grammar is given for the full language. The text describes how ambiguities are resolved in practice (for example by applying rules of operator precedence).
This reference describes only the language itself. Documentation for the built-in prelude is available elsewhere.
3.2. Identifiers and Keywords¶
id ::=letter
constituent
* | "_"constituent
* constituent ::=letter
|digit
| "_" | "'" quals ::= (id
".")+ qualid ::=id
|quals
id
binop ::=opstartchar
opchar
* qualbinop ::=binop
|quals
binop
| "`"qualid
"`" fieldid ::=decimal
|id
opstartchar ::= "+" | "-" | "*" | "/" | "%" | "=" | "!" | ">" | "<" | "|" | "&" | "^" opchar ::=opstartchar
| "." constructor ::= "#"id
Many things in Futhark are named. When we are defining something, we
give it an unqualified name (id). When referencing something inside
a module, we use a qualified name (qualid). The constructor names
of a sum type are identifiers prefixed with #
, with no space
afterwards. The fields of a record are named with fieldid. Note
that a fieldid can be a decimal number. Futhark has three distinct
name spaces: terms, module types, and types. Modules (including
parametric modules) and values both share the term namespace.
3.3. Primitive Types and Values¶
literal ::=intnumber
|floatnumber
| "true" | "false"
Boolean literals are written true
and false
. The primitive
types in Futhark are the signed integer types i8
, i16
,
i32
, i64
, the unsigned integer types u8
, u16
, u32
,
u64
, the floating-point types f16
, f32
, f64
, as well
as bool
.
int_type ::= "i8" | "i16" | "i32" | "i64" | "u8" | "u16" | "u32" | "u64" float_type ::= "f16" | "f32" | "f64"
Numeric literals can be suffixed with their intended type. For
example 42i8
is of type i8
, and 1337e2f64
is of type
f64
. If no suffix is given, the type of the literal will be
inferred based on its use. If the use is not constrained, integral
literals will be assigned type i32
, and decimal literals type
f64
. Hexadecimal literals are supported by prefixing with 0x
,
and binary literals by prefixing with 0b
.
Floats can also be written in hexadecimal format such as 0x1.fp3
,
instead of the usual decimal notation. Here, 0x1.f
evaluates to
1 15/16
and the p3
multiplies it by 2^3 = 8
.
intnumber ::= (decimal
|hexadecimal
|binary
) [int_type
] decimal ::=decdigit
(decdigit
|"_")* hexadecimal ::= 0 ("x" | "X")hexdigit
(hexdigit
|"_")* binary ::= 0 ("b" | "B")bindigit
(bindigit
| "_")*
floatnumber ::= (pointfloat
|exponentfloat
|hexadecimalfloat
) [float_type
] pointfloat ::= [intpart
]fraction
exponentfloat ::= (intpart
|pointfloat
)exponent
hexadecimalfloat ::= 0 ("x" | "X")hexintpart
hexfraction
("p"|"P") ["+" | "-"]decdigit
+ intpart ::=decdigit
(decdigit
|"_")* fraction ::= "."decdigit
(decdigit
|"_")* hexintpart ::=hexdigit
(hexdigit
| "_")* hexfraction ::= "."hexdigit
(hexdigit
|"_")* exponent ::= ("e" | "E") ["+" | "-"]decdigit
+
decdigit ::= "0"..."9"
hexdigit ::= decdigit
| "a"..."f" | "A"..."F"
bindigit ::= "0" | "1"
3.3.1. Compound Types and Values¶
type ::=qualid
|array_type
|tuple_type
|record_type
|sum_type
|function_type
|type_application
|existential_size
Compound types can be constructed based on the primitive types. The Futhark type system is entirely structural, and type abbreviations are merely shorthands (with one exception, see Sizes in type abbreviations). The only exception is abstract types whose definition has been hidden via the module system (see Modules).
tuple_type ::= "(" ")" | "("type
(","type
)+ ")"
A tuple value or type is written as a sequence of comma-separated
values or types enclosed in parentheses. For example, (0, 1)
is a
tuple value of type (i32,i32)
. The elements of a tuple need not
have the same type – the value (false, 1, 2.0)
is of type
(bool, i32, f64)
. A tuple element can also be another tuple, as
in ((1,2),(3,4))
, which is of type ((i32,i32),(i32,i32))
. A
tuple cannot have just one element, but empty tuples are permitted,
although they are not very useful. Empty tuples are written ()
and are of type ()
.
array_type ::= "[" [dim
] "]"type
dim ::=qualid
|decimal
An array value is written as a sequence of zero or more
comma-separated values enclosed in square brackets: [1,2,3]
. An
array type is written as [d]t
, where t
is the element type of
the array, and d
is an integer or variable indicating the size.
We can often elide d
and write just []
(an anonymous size),
in which case the size will be inferred. An anonymous size is a
syntactic shorthand, and is always replaced by an actual size by the
type checker (either via inference or by inventing a new name,
depending on context).
As an example, an array of three integers could be written as
[1,2,3]
, and has type [3]i32
. An empty array is written as
[]
, and its type is inferred from its use. When writing Futhark
values for such uses as futhark test
(but not when writing
programs), empty arrays are written empty([0]t)
for an empty array
of type [0]t
. When using empty
, all dimensions must be given
a size, and at least one must be zero, e.g. empty([2][0]i32)
.
Multi-dimensional arrays are supported in Futhark, but they must be
regular, meaning that all inner arrays must have the same shape.
For example, [[1,2], [3,4], [5,6]]
is a valid array of type
[3][2]i32
, but [[1,2], [3,4,5], [6,7]]
is not, because there
we cannot come up with integers m
and n
such that
[m][n]i32
describes the array. The restriction to regular arrays
is rooted in low-level concerns about efficient compilation. However,
we can understand it in language terms by the inability to write a
type with consistent dimension sizes for an irregular array value. In
a Futhark program, all array values, including intermediate (unnamed)
arrays, must be typeable.
sum_type ::=constructor
type
* ("|"constructor
type
*)*
Sum types are anonymous in Futhark, and are written as the
constructors separated by vertical bars. Each constructor consists of
a #
-prefixed name, followed by zero or more types, called its
payload. Note: The current implementation of sum types is
fairly inefficient, in that all possible constructors of a sum-typed
value will be resident in memory. Avoid using sum types where
multiple constructors have large payloads.
record_type ::= "{" "}" | "{"fieldid
":"type
(","fieldid
":"type
)* "}"
Records are mappings from field names to values, with the field names known statically. A tuple behaves in all respects like a record with numeric field names starting from zero, and vice versa. It is an error for a record type to name the same field twice.
type_application ::=type
type_arg
| "*"type
type_arg ::= "[" [dim
] "]" |type
A parametric type abbreviation can be applied by juxtaposing its name and its arguments. The application must provide as many arguments as the type abbreviation has parameters - partial application is presently not allowed. See Type Abbreviations for further details.
function_type ::=param_type
"->"type
param_type ::=type
| "("id
":"type
")"
Functions are classified via function types, but they are not fully first class. See Higher-order functions for the details.
stringlit ::= '"'stringchar
* '"' stringchar ::= <any source character except "\" or newline or double quotes> charlit ::= "'"char
"'" char ::= <any source character except "\" or newline or single quotes>
String literals are supported, but only as syntactic sugar for UTF-8
encoded arrays of u8
values. There is no character type in
Futhark, but character literals are interpreted as integers of the
corresponding Unicode code point.
existential_size ::= "?" ("["id
"]")+ "."type
An existential size quantifier brings an unknown size into scope within a type. This can be used to encode constraints for statically unknowable array sizes.
3.4. Declarations¶
A Futhark module consists of a sequence of declarations. Files are also modules. Each declaration is processed in order, and a declaration can only refer to names bound by preceding declarations.
dec ::=val_bind
|type_bind
|mod_bind
|mod_type_bind
| "open"mod_exp
| "import"stringlit
| "local"dec
| "#["attr
"]"dec
Any names defined by a declaration inside a module are by default visible to users of that module (see Modules).
open mod_exp
brings names bound inmod_exp
into the current scope. These names will also be visible to users of the module.local dec
has the meaning ofdec
, but any names bound bydec
will not be visible outside the module.import "foo"
is a shorthand forlocal open import "foo"
, where theimport
is interpreted as a module expression (see Modules).#[attr] dec
adds an attribute to a declaration (see Attributes).
3.4.1. Declaring Functions and Values¶
val_bind ::= ("def" | "entry" | "let") (id
| "("binop
")")type_param
*pat
* [":"type
] "="exp
| ("def" | "entry" | "let")pat
binop
pat
[":"type
] "="exp
Note: using let
to define top-level bindings is deprecated.
Functions and constants must be defined before they are used. A function declaration must specify the name, parameters, and body of the function:
def name params...: rettype = body
Hindley-Milner-style type inference is supported. A parameter may be
given a type with the notation (name: type)
. Functions may not be
recursive. You may put size annotations in the return type and
parameter types; see Size Types. A function can be polymorphic
by using type parameters, in the same way as for Type
Abbreviations:
def reverse [n] 't (xs: [n]t): [n]t = xs[::-1]
Type parameters for a function do not need to cover the types of all parameters. The type checker will add more if necessary. For example, the following is well typed:
def pair 'a (x: a) y = (x, y)
A new type variable will be invented for the parameter y
.
Shape and type parameters are not passed explicitly when calling function, but are automatically derived. If an array value v is passed for a type parameter t, all other arguments passed of type t must have the same shape as v. For example, consider the following definition:
def pair 't (x: t) (y: t) = (x, y)
The application pair [1] [2,3]
will fail at run-time.
To simplify the handling of in-place updates (see In-place Updates), the value returned by a function may not alias any global variables.
3.4.2. User-Defined Operators¶
Infix operators are defined much like functions:
def (p1: t1) op (p2: t2): rt = ...
For example:
def (a:i32,b:i32) +^ (c:i32,d:i32) = (a+c, b+d)
We can also define operators by enclosing the operator name in parentheses and suffixing the parameters, as an ordinary function:
def (+^) (a:i32,b:i32) (c:i32,d:i32) = (a+c, b+d)
This is necessary when defining a polymorphic operator.
A valid operator name is a non-empty sequence of characters chosen
from the string "+-*/%=!><&^"
. The fixity of an operator is
determined by its first characters, which must correspond to a
built-in operator. Thus, +^
binds like +
, whilst *^
binds
like *
. The longest such prefix is used to determine fixity, so
>>=
binds like >>
, not like >
.
It is not permitted to define operators with the names &&
or
||
(although these as prefixes are accepted). This is because a
user-defined version of these operators would not be short-circuiting.
User-defined operators behave exactly like ordinary functions, except
for being infix.
A built-in operator can be shadowed (i.e. a new +
can be defined).
This will result in the built-in polymorphic operator becoming
inaccessible, except through the intrinsics
module.
An infix operator can also be defined with prefix notation, like an ordinary function, by enclosing it in parentheses:
def (+) (x: i32) (y: i32) = x - y
This is necessary when defining operators that take type or shape parameters.
3.4.3. Entry Points¶
Apart from declaring a function with the keyword def
, it can also
be declared with entry
. When the Futhark program is compiled any
top-level function declared with entry
will be exposed as an entry
point. If the Futhark program has been compiled as a library, these
are the functions that will be exposed. If compiled as an executable,
you can use the --entry-point
command line option of the generated
executable to select the entry point you wish to run.
Any top-level function named main
will always be considered an
entry point, whether it is declared with entry
or not.
The name of an entry point must not contain an apostrophe ('
),
even though that is normally permitted in Futhark identifiers.
3.4.4. Value Declarations¶
A named value/constant can be declared as follows:
def name: type = definition
The definition can be an arbitrary expression, including function calls and other values, although they must be in scope before the value is defined. A constant value may not have a unique type (see In-place updates). If the return type contains any anonymous sizes (see Size types), new existential sizes will be constructed for them.
3.4.5. Type Abbreviations¶
type_bind ::= ("type" | "type^" | "type~")id
type_param
* "="type
type_param ::= "["id
"]" | "'"id
| "'~"id
| "'^"id
Type abbreviations function as shorthands for the purpose of
documentation or brevity. After a type binding type t1 = t2
, the
name t1
can be used as a shorthand for the type t2
. Type
abbreviations do not create distinct types: the types t1
and
t2
are entirely interchangeable.
If the right-hand side of a type contains existential sizes, it must
be declared “size-lifted” with type~
. If it (potentially)
contains a function, it must be declared “fully lifted” with
type^
. A lifted type can also contain existential sizes. Lifted
types cannot be put in arrays. Fully lifted types cannot be returned
from conditional or loop expressions.
A type abbreviation can have zero or more parameters. A type parameter enclosed with square brackets is a size parameter, and can be used in the definition as an array dimension size, or as a dimension argument to other type abbreviations. When passing an argument for a shape parameter, it must be enclosed in square brackets. Example:
type two_intvecs [n] = ([n]i32, [n]i32)
def x: two_intvecs [2] = (iota 2, replicate 2 0)
Size parameters work much like shape declarations for arrays. Like shape declarations, they can be elided via square brackets containing nothing. All size parameters must be used in the definition of the type abbreviation.
A type parameter prefixed with a single quote is a type parameter. It is in scope as a type in the definition of the type abbreviation. Whenever the type abbreviation is used in a type expression, a type argument must be passed for the parameter. Type arguments need not be prefixed with single quotes:
type two_vecs [n] 't = ([n]t, [n]t)
type two_intvecs [n] = two_vecs [n] i32
def x: two_vecs [2] i32 = (iota 2, replicate 2 0)
A size-lifted type parameter is prefixed with '~
, and a fully
lifted type parameter with '^
. These have the same rules and
restrictions as lifted type abbreviations.
3.5. Expressions¶
Expressions are the basic construct of any Futhark program. An expression has a statically determined type, and produces a value at runtime. Futhark is an eager/strict language (“call by value”).
The basic elements of expressions are called atoms, for example literals and variables, but also more complicated forms.
atom ::=literal
|qualid
("."fieldid
)* |stringlit
|charlit
| "(" ")" | "("exp
")" ("."fieldid
)* | "("exp
(","exp
)* ")" | "{" "}" | "{"field
(","field
)* "}" |qualid
"["index
(","index
)* "]" | "("exp
")" "["index
(","index
)* "]" |quals
"." "("exp
")" | "["exp
(","exp
)* "]" | "["exp
[".."exp
] "..."exp
"]" | "("qualbinop
")" | "("exp
qualbinop
")" | "("qualbinop
exp
")" | "(" ( "."field
)+ ")" | "(" "." "["index
(","index
)* "]" ")" | "???" exp ::=atom
|exp
qualbinop
exp
|exp
exp
| "!"exp
| "-"exp
|constructor
exp
* |exp
":"type
|exp
":>"type
|exp
[ ".."exp
] "..."exp
|exp
[ ".."exp
] "..<"exp
|exp
[ ".."exp
] "..>"exp
| "if"exp
"then"exp
"else"exp
| "let"size
*pat
"="exp
"in"exp
| "let"id
"["index
(","index
)* "]" "="exp
"in"exp
| "let"id
type_param
*pat
+ [":"type
] "="exp
"in"exp
| "(" "\"pat
+ [":"type
] "->"exp
")" | "loop"pat
["="exp
]loopform
"do"exp
| "#["attr
"]"exp
| "unsafe"exp
| "assert"atom
atom
|exp
"with" "["index
(","index
)* "]" "="exp
|exp
"with"fieldid
("."fieldid
)* "="exp
| "match"exp
("case"pat
"->"exp
)+ field ::=fieldid
"="exp
|id
size ::= "["id
"]" pat ::=id
|pat_literal
| "_" | "(" ")" | "("pat
")" | "("pat
(","pat
)+ ")" | "{" "}" | "{"fieldid
["="pat
] (","fieldid
["="pat
])* "}" |constructor
pat
* |pat
":"type
| "#["attr
"]"pat
pat_literal ::= [ "-" ]intnumber
| [ "-" ]floatnumber
|charlit
| "true" | "false" loopform ::= "for"id
"<"exp
| "for"pat
"in"exp
| "while"exp
index ::=exp
[":" [exp
]] [":" [exp
]] | [exp
] ":"exp
[":" [exp
]] | [exp
] [":"exp
] ":" [exp
]
Some of the built-in expression forms have parallel semantics, but it is not guaranteed that the the parallel constructs in Futhark are evaluated in parallel, especially if they are nested in complicated ways. Their purpose is to give the compiler as much freedom and information is possible, in order to enable it to maximise the efficiency of the generated code.
3.5.1. Resolving Ambiguities¶
The above grammar contains some ambiguities, which in the concrete implementation is resolved via a combination of lexer and grammar transformations. For ease of understanding, they are presented here in natural text.
An expression
x.y
may either be a reference to the namey
in the modulex
, or the fieldy
in the recordx
. Modules and values occupy the same name space, so this is disambiguated by whetherx
is a value or module.A type ascription (
exp : type
) cannot appear as an array index, as it conflicts with the syntax for slicing.In
f [x]
, there is am ambiguity between indexing the arrayf
at positionx
, or calling the functionf
with the singleton arrayx
. We resolve this the following way:If there is a space between
f
and the opening bracket, it is treated as a function application.Otherwise, it is an array index operation.
An expression
(-x)
is parsed as the variablex
negated and enclosed in parentheses, rather than an operator section partially applying the infix operator-
.Function and type application, and prefix operators, bind more tightly than any infix operator. Note that the only prefix operators are
!
and-
, and more cannot be defined.#foo #bar
is interpreted as a constructor with a#bar
payload, not as applying#foo
to#bar
(the latter would be semantically invalid anyway).The following table describes the precedence and associativity of infix operators in both expressions and type expressions. All operators in the same row have the same precedence. The rows are listed in increasing order of precedence. Note that not all operators listed here are used in expressions; nevertheless, they are still used for resolving ambiguities.
Associativity
Operators
left
,
left
:
,:>
left
`op`
left
||
left
&&
left
<=
>=
>
<
==
!=
left
&
^
|
left
<<
>>
left
+
-
left
*
/
%
//
%%
left
|>
right
<|
right
->
left
juxtaposition
3.5.2. Patterns¶
We say that a pattern is irrefutable if it can never fail to match a
value of the appropriate type. Concretely, this means that it does
not require any specific sum type constructor (unless the type in
question has only a single constructor), or any specific numeric or
boolean literal. Patterns used in function parameters and let
bindings must be irrefutable. Patterns used in case
need not be
irrefutable.
A pattern _
matches any value. A pattern consisting of a literal
value (e.g. a numeric constant) matches exactly that value.
3.5.3. Semantics of Simple Expressions¶
3.5.3.1. literal¶
Evaluates to itself.
3.5.3.2. qualid¶
A variable name; evaluates to its value in the current environment.
3.5.3.3. stringlit¶
Evaluates to an array of type []u8
that contains the characters
encoded as UTF-8.
3.5.3.4. ()
¶
Evaluates to an empty tuple.
3.5.3.5. ( e )
¶
Evaluates to the result of e
.
3.5.3.6. ???
¶
A typed hole, usable as a placeholder expression. The type checker will infer any necessary type for this expression. This can sometimes result in an ambiguous type, which can be resolved using a type ascription. Evaluating a typed hole results in a run-time error.
3.5.3.7. (e1, e2, ..., eN)
¶
Evaluates to a tuple containing N
values. Equivalent to the
record literal {0=e1, 1=e2, ..., N-1=eN}
.
3.5.3.8. {f1, f2, ..., fN}
¶
A record expression consists of a comma-separated sequence of field expressions. Each field expression defines the value of a field in the record. A field expression can take one of two forms:
f = e
: defines a field with the namef
and the value resulting from evaluatinge
.
f
: defines a field with the namef
and the value of the variablef
in scope.
Each field may only be defined once.
3.5.3.9. a[i]
¶
Return the element at the given position in the array. The index may be a comma-separated list of indexes instead of just a single index. If the number of indices given is less than the rank of the array, an array is returned. The index may be of any unsigned integer type.
The array a
must be a variable name or a parenthesised expression.
Furthermore, there may not be a space between a
and the opening
bracket. This disambiguates the array indexing a[i]
, from a
[i]
, which is a function call with a literal array.
3.5.3.10. a[i:j:s]
¶
Return a slice of the array a
from index i
to j
, the
former inclusive and the latter exclusive, taking every s
-th
element. The s
parameter may not be zero. If s
is negative,
it means to start at i
and descend by steps of size s
to j
(not inclusive). Slicing can be done only with expressions of type
i64
.
It is generally a bad idea for s
to be non-constant.
Slicing of multiple dimensions can be done by separating with commas,
and may be intermixed freely with indexing.
If s
is elided it defaults to 1
. If i
or j
is elided, their
value depends on the sign of s
. If s
is positive, i
become 0
and j
become the length of the array. If s
is negative, i
becomes
the length of the array minus one, and j
becomes minus one. This means that
a[::-1]
is the reverse of the array a
.
In the general case, the size of the array produced by a slice is unknown (see Size types). In a few cases, the size is known statically:
a[0:n]
has sizen
a[:n]
has sizen
a[0:n:1]
has sizen
a[:n:1]
has sizen
This holds only if n
is a variable or constant.
3.5.3.11. [x, y, z]
¶
Create an array containing the indicated elements. Each element must have the same type and shape.
3.5.3.12. x..y...z
¶
Construct a signed integer array whose first element is x
and
which proceeds with a stride of y-x
until reaching z
(inclusive). The ..y
part can be elided in which case a stride of
1 is used. A run-time error occurs if z
is less than x
or
y
, or if x
and y
are the same value.
In the general case, the size of the array produced by a range is unknown (see Size types). In a few cases, the size is known statically:
1..2...n
has sizen
This holds only if n
is a variable or constant.
3.5.3.13. x..y..<z
¶
Construct a signed integer array whose first elements is x
, and
which proceeds upwards with a stride of y-x
until reaching z
(exclusive). The ..y
part can be elided in which case a stride of
1 is used. A run-time error occurs if z
is less than x
or
y
, or if x
and y
are the same value.
0..1..<n
has sizen
0..<n
has sizen
This holds only if n
is a variable or constant.
3.5.3.14. x..y..>z
¶
Construct a signed integer array whose first elements is x
, and
which proceeds downwards with a stride of y-x
until reaching z
(exclusive). The ..y
part can be elided in which case a stride of
-1 is used. A run-time error occurs if z
is greater than x
or
y
, or if x
and y
are the same value.
3.5.3.15. e.f
¶
Access field f
of the expression e
, which must be a record or
tuple.
3.5.3.16. m.(e)
¶
Evaluate the expression e
with the module m
locally opened, as
if by open
. This can make some expressions easier to read and
write, without polluting the global scope with a declaration-level
open
.
3.5.3.17. x
binop y
¶
Apply an operator to x
and y
. Operators are functions like
any other, and can be user-defined. Futhark pre-defines certain
“magical” overloaded operators that work on many different types.
Overloaded functions cannot be defined by the user. Both operands
must have the same type. The predefined operators and their semantics
are:
**
Power operator, defined for all numeric types.
//
,%%
Division and remainder on integers, with rounding towards zero.
*
,/
,%
,+
,-
The usual arithmetic operators, defined for all numeric types. Note that
/
and%
rounds towards negative infinity when used on integers - this is different from in C.
^
,&
,|
,>>
,<<
Bitwise operators, respectively bitwise xor, and, or, arithmetic shift right and left, and logical shift right. Shifting is undefined if the right operand is negative, or greater than or equal to the length in bits of the left operand.
Note that, unlike in C, bitwise operators have higher priority than arithmetic operators. This means that
x & y == z
is understood as(x & y) == z
, rather thanx & (y == z)
as it would in C. Note that the latter is a type error in Futhark anyhow.
==
,!=
Compare any two values of builtin or compound type for equality.
<
,<=
.>
,>=
Company any two values of numeric type for equality.
`op`
Use
op
, which may be any non-operator function name, as an infix operator.
3.5.3.18. x && y
¶
Short-circuiting logical conjunction; both operands must be of type
bool
.
3.5.3.19. x || y
¶
Short-circuiting logical disjunction; both operands must be of type
bool
.
3.5.3.20. f x
¶
Apply the function f
to the argument x
.
3.5.3.21. #c x y z
¶
Apply the sum type constructor #x
to the payload x
, y
, and
z
. A constructor application is always assumed to be saturated,
i.e. its entire payload provided. This means that constructors may
not be partially applied.
3.5.3.22. e : t
¶
Annotate that e
is expected to be of type t
, failing with a
type error if it is not. If t
is an array with shape
declarations, the correctness of the shape declarations is checked at
run-time.
Due to ambiguities, this syntactic form cannot appear as an array
index expression unless it is first enclosed in parentheses. However,
as an array index must always be of type i64
, there is never a
reason to put an explicit type ascription there.
3.5.3.23. e :> t
¶
Coerce the size of e
to t
. The type of t
must match the
type of e
, except that the sizes may be statically different. At
run-time, it will be verified that the sizes are the same.
3.5.3.24. ! x
¶
Logical negation if x
is of type bool
. Bitwise negation if
x
is of integral type.
3.5.3.25. - x
¶
Numerical negation of x
, which must be of numeric type.
3.5.3.26. #[attr] e
¶
Apply the given attribute to the expression. Attributes are an ad-hoc and optional mechanism for providing extra information, directives, or hints to the compiler. See Attributes for more information.
3.5.3.27. unsafe e
¶
Elide safety checks and assertions (such as bounds checking) that
occur during execution of e
. This is useful if the compiler is
otherwise unable to avoid bounds checks (e.g. when using indirect
indexes), but you really do not want them there. Make very sure that
the code is correct; eliding such checks can lead to memory
corruption.
This construct is deprecated. Use the #[unsafe]
attribute instead.
3.5.3.28. assert cond e
¶
Terminate execution with an error if cond
evaluates to false,
otherwise produce the result of evaluating e
. Unless e
produces a value that is used subsequently (it can just be a
variable), dead code elimination may remove the assertion.
3.5.3.29. a with [i] = e
¶
Return a
, but with the element at position i
changed to
contain the result of evaluating e
. Consumes a
.
3.5.3.30. r with f = e
¶
Return the record r
, but with field f
changed to have value
e
. The type of the field must remain unchanged. Type inference
is limited: r
must have a completely known type up to f
.
This sometimes requires extra type annotations to make the type of
r
known.
3.5.3.31. if c then a else b
¶
If c
evaluates to true
, evaluate a
, else evaluate b
.
3.5.4. Binding Expressions¶
3.5.4.1. let pat = e in body
¶
Evaluate e
and bind the result to the irrefutable pattern pat
(see Patterns) while evaluating body
. The in
keyword
is optional if body
is a let
expression.
3.5.4.2. let [n] pat = e in body
¶
As above, but bind sizes (here n
) used in the pattern (here to the
size of the array being bound). All sizes must be used in the
pattern. Roughly Equivalent to let f [n] pat = body in f e
.
3.5.4.3. let a[i] = v in body
¶
Write v
to a[i]
and evaluate body
. The given index need
not be complete and can also be a slice, but in these cases, the value
of v
must be an array of the proper size. This notation is
Syntactic sugar for let a = a with [i] = v in a
.
3.5.4.4. let f params... = e in body
¶
Bind f
to a function with the given parameters and definition
(e
) and evaluate body
. The function will be treated as
aliasing any free variables in e
. The function is not in scope of
itself, and hence cannot be recursive.
3.5.4.5. loop pat = initial for x in a do loopbody
¶
Bind
pat
to the initial values given ininitial
.For each element
x
ina
, evaluateloopbody
and rebindpat
to the result of the evaluation.Return the final value of
pat
.
The = initial
can be left out, in which case initial values for
the pattern are taken from equivalently named variables in the
environment. I.e., loop (x) = ...
is equivalent to loop (x = x)
= ...
.
3.5.4.6. loop pat = initial for x < n do loopbody
¶
Equivalent to loop (pat = initial) for x in [0..1..<n] do loopbody
.
3.5.4.7. loop pat = initial while cond do loopbody
¶
Bind
pat
to the initial values given ininitial
.If
cond
evaluates to true, bindpat
to the result of evaluatingloopbody
, and repeat the step.Return the final value of
pat
.
3.5.4.8. match x case p1 -> e1 case p2 -> e2
¶
Match the value produced by x
to each of the patterns in turn,
picking the first one that succeeds. The result of the corresponding
expression is the value of the entire match
expression. All the
expressions associated with a case
must have the same type (but
not necessarily match the type of x
). It is a type error if there
is not a case
for every possible value of x
- inexhaustive
pattern matching is not allowed.
3.5.5. Function Expressions¶
3.5.5.1. \x y z: t -> e
¶
Produces an anonymous function taking parameters x
, y
, and
z
, returns type t
, and whose body is e
. Lambdas do not
permit type parameters; use a named function if you want a polymorphic
function.
3.5.5.2. (binop)
¶
An operator section that is equivalent to \x y -> x *binop* y
.
3.5.5.3. (x binop)
¶
An operator section that is equivalent to \y -> x *binop* y
.
3.5.5.4. (binop y)
¶
An operator section that is equivalent to \x -> x *binop* y
.
3.5.5.5. (.a.b.c)
¶
An operator section that is equivalent to \x -> x.a.b.c
.
3.5.5.6. (.[i,j])
¶
An operator section that is equivalent to \x -> x[i,j]
.
3.6. Higher-order functions¶
At a high level, Futhark functions are values, and can be used as any other value. However, to ensure that the compiler is able to compile the higher-order functions efficiently via defunctionalisation, certain type-driven restrictions exist on how functions can be used. These also apply to any record or tuple containing a function (a functional type):
Arrays of functions are not permitted.
A function cannot be returned from an
if
expression.A
loop
parameter cannot be a function.
Further, type parameters are divided into non-lifted (bound with
an apostrophe, e.g. 't
), size-lifted ('~t
), and fully
lifted ('^t
). Only fully lifted type parameters may be
instantiated with a functional type. Within a function, a lifted type
parameter is treated as a functional type.
See also In-place updates for details on how uniqueness types interact with higher-order functions.
3.7. Type Inference¶
Futhark supports Hindley-Milner-style type inference, so in many cases explicit type annotations can be left off. Record field projection cannot in isolation be fully inferred, and may need type annotations where their inputs are bound. The same goes when constructing sum types, as Futhark cannot assume that a given constructor only belongs to a single type. Further, unique types (see In-place updates) must be explicitly annotated.
Type inference processes top-level declared in top-down order, and the type of a top-level function must be completely inferred at its definition site. Specifically, if a top-level function uses overloaded arithmetic operators, the resolution of those overloads cannot be influenced by later uses of the function.
3.8. Size Types¶
Futhark supports a simple system of size-dependent types that statically verifies that the sizes of arrays passed to a function are compatible. The focus is on simplicity, not completeness.
Whenever a pattern occurs (in let
, loop
, and function
parameters), as well as in return types, size annotations may be
used to express invariants about the shapes of arrays that are
accepted or produced by the function. For example:
def f [n] (a: [n]i32) (b: [n]i32): [n]i32 =
map2 (+) a b
We use a size parameter, [n]
, to explicitly quantify sizes. The
[n]
parameter is not explicitly passed when calling f
.
Rather, its value is implicitly deduced from the arguments passed for
the value parameters. An array type can contain anonymous
dimensions, e.g. []i32
, for which the type checker will invent
fresh size parameters, which ensures that all arrays have a (symbolic)
size. On the right-hand side of a function arrow (“return types”),
this results in an existential size that is not known until the
function is fully applied, e.g:
val filter [n] 'a : (p: a -> bool) -> (as: [n]a) -> ?[k].[k]a
A size annotation can also be an integer constant (with no suffix). Size parameters can be used as ordinary variables within the scope of the parameters. The type checker verifies that the program obeys any constraints imposed by size annotations.
Size-dependent types are supported, as the names of parameters can be used in the return type of a function:
def replicate 't (n: i64) (x: t): [n]t = ...
An application replicate 10 0
will have type [10]i32
.
Whenever we write a type [n]t
, n
must already be a variable of
type i64
in scope (possibly by being bound as a size parameter).
3.8.1. Unknown sizes¶
Since sizes must be constants or variables, there are many cases where
the type checker cannot assign a precise size to the result of some
operation. For example, the type of concat
should conceptually be:
val concat [n] [m] 't : [n]t -> [m]t -> [n+m]t
But this is not presently allowed. Instead, the return type contains an existential size:
val concat [n] [m] 't : [n]t -> [m]t -> ?[k].[k]t
When an application concat xs ys
is found, the result will be of
type [k']t
, where k'
is a fresh unknown size variable that
is considered distinct from every other size in the program. It is
often necessary to perform a size coercion (see Size coercion) to
convert an unknown size to a known size.
Generally, unknown sizes are constructed whenever the true size cannot be expressed. The following lists all possible sources of unknown sizes.
3.8.1.1. Size going out of scope¶
An unknown size is created when the proper size of an array refers to a name that has gone out of scope:
let c = a + b
in replicate c 0
The type of replicate c 0
is [c]i32
, but since c
is
locally bound, the type of the entire expression is [k]i32
for
some fresh k
.
3.8.1.2. Compound expression passed as function argument¶
Intuitively, the type of replicate (x+y) 0
should be [x+y]i32
,
but since sizes must be names or constants, this is not expressible.
Therefore an unknown size variable is created and the size of the
expression becomes [k]i32
.
3.8.1.3. Compound expression used as range bound¶
While a simple range expression such as 0..<n
can be assigned type
[n]i32
, a range expression 0..<(n+1)
will give produce an
unknown size.
3.8.1.4. Complex slicing¶
Most complex array slicing, such as xs[a:b]
, will have an unknown
size. Exceptions are listed in the reference for slice
expressions.
3.8.1.5. Complex ranges¶
Most complex ranges, such as a..<b
, will have an unknown size.
Exceptions exist for general ranges and “upto”
ranges.
3.8.1.6. Existential size in function return type¶
Whenever the result of a function application has an existential size, that size is replaced with a fresh unknown size variable.
For example, filter
has the following type:
val filter [n] 'a : (p: a -> bool) -> (as: [n]a) -> ?[k].[k]a
For an application filter f xs
, the type checker invents a fresh
unknown size k'
, and the actual type for this specific application
will be [k']a
.
3.8.1.7. Branches of if
return arrays of different sizes¶
When an if
(or match
) expression has branches that returns
array of different sizes, the differing sizes will be replaced with
fresh unknown sizes. For example:
if b then [[1,2], [3,4]]
else [[5,6]]
This expression will have type [k][2]i32
, for some fresh k
.
Important: The check whether the sizes differ is done when first
encountering the if
or match
during type checking. At this
point, the type checker may not realise that the two sizes are
actually equal, even though constraints later in the function force
them to be. This can always be resolved by adding type annotations.
3.8.1.8. An array produced by a loop does not have a known size¶
If the size of some loop parameter is not maintained across a loop iteration, the final result of the loop will contain unknown sizes. For example:
loop xs = [1] for i < n do xs ++ xs
Similar to conditionals, the type checker may sometimes be too cautious in assuming that some size may change during the loop. Adding type annotations to the loop parameter can be used to resolve this.
3.8.2. Size coercion¶
Size coercion, written with :>
, can be used to perform a
runtime-checked coercion of one size to another. Since size
annotations can refer only to variables and constants, this is
necessary when writing more complicated size functions:
def concat_to 'a (m: i32) (a: []a) (b: []a) : [m]a =
a ++ b :> [m]a
Only expression-level type annotations give rise to run-time checks. Despite their similar syntax, parameter and return type annotations must be valid at compile-time, or type checking will fail.
3.8.3. Causality restriction¶
Conceptually, size parameters are assigned their value by reading the sizes of concrete values passed along as parameters. This means that any size parameter must be used as the size of some parameter. This is an error:
def f [n] (x: i32) = n
The following is not an error:
def f [n] (g: [n]i32 -> [n]i32) = ...
However, using this function comes with a constraint: whenever an
application f x
occurs, the value of the size parameter must be
inferable. Specifically, this value must have been used as the size
of an array before the f x
application is encountered. The
notion of “before” is subtle, as there is no evaluation ordering of a
Futhark expression, except that a let
-binding is always
evaluated before its body, the argument to a function is always
evaluated before the function itself, and the left operand to an
operator is evaluated before the right.
The causality restriction only occurs when a function has size parameters whose first use is not as a concrete array size. For example, it does not apply to uses of the following function:
def f [n] (arr: [n]i32) (g: [n]i32 -> [n]i32) = ...
This is because the proper value of n
can be read directly from
the actual size of the array.
3.8.4. Empty array literals¶
Just as with size-polymorphic functions, when constructing an empty
array, we must know the exact size of the (missing) elements. For
example, in the following program we are forcing the elements of a
to be the same as the elements of b
, but the size of the elements
of b
are not known at the time a
is constructed:
def main (b: bool) (xs: []i32) =
let a = [] : [][]i32
let b = [filter (>0) xs]
in a[0] == b[0]
The result is a type error.
3.8.5. Sum types¶
When constructing a value of a sum type, the compiler must still be able to determine the size of the constructors that are not used. This is illegal:
type sum = #foo ([]i32) | #bar ([]i32)
def main (xs: *[]i32) =
let v : sum = #foo xs
in xs
3.8.6. Modules¶
When matching a module with a module type (see Modules),
a non-lifted abstract type (i.e. one that is declared with type
rather than type^
) may not be implemented by a type abbreviation
that contains any existential sizes. This is to ensure that if we
have the following:
module m : { type t } = ...
Then we can construct an array of values of type m.t
without
worrying about constructing an irregular array.
3.8.7. Higher-order functions¶
When a higher-order function takes a functional argument whose return
type is a non-lifted type parameter, any instantiation of that type
parameter must have a non-existential size. If the return type is a
lifted type parameter, then the instantiation may contain existential
sizes. This is why the type of map
guarantees regular arrays:
val map [n] 'a 'b : (a -> b) -> [n]a -> [n]b
The type parameter b
can only be replaced with a type that has
non-existential sizes, which means they must be the same for every
application of the function. In contrast, this is the type of the
pipeline operator:
val (|>) '^a -> '^b : a -> (a -> b) -> b
The provided function can return something with an existential size
(such as filter
).
3.8.7.1. A function whose return type has an unknown size¶
If a function (named or anonymous) is inferred to have a return type that contains an unknown size variable created within the function body, that size variable will be replaced with an existential size. In most cases this is not important, but it means that an expression like the following is ill-typed:
map (\xs -> iota (length xs)) (xss : [n][m]i32)
This is because the (length xs)
expression gives rise to some
fresh size k
. The lambda is then assigned the type [n]t ->
[k]i32
, which is immediately turned into [n]t -> ?[k].[k]i32
because
k
was generated inside its body. A function of this type cannot
be passed to map
, as explained before. The solution is to bind
length
to a name before the lambda.
3.8.8. Sizes in type abbreviations¶
When anonymous sizes are passed to type abbreviations, if that anonymous size is eventually instantiated with an existential size, the same existential size is going to be used for all instances of the corresponding parameter in the right-hand-side of the type abbreviation. Note that this breaks with the usual conception of type abbreviations as purely a shorthand, as this could not be expressed without the abbreviation. Example:
type square [n] = [n][n]i32
The following function is be known to return a square array:
val f : () -> square []
But this is not the case for the function that inlines the definition
of square
:
val g : () -> [][]i32
As this above would be elaborated as follows:
val g : () -> ?[n][m].[n][m]i32
We can of course explicitly write that the function returns a square array of existential size:
val g : () -> ?[n].[n]i32
3.9. In-place Updates¶
In-place updates do not provide observable side effects, but they do provide a way to efficiently update an array in-place, with the guarantee that the cost is proportional to the size of the value(s) being written, not the size of the full array.
The a with [i] = v
language construct, and derived forms,
performs an in-place update. The compiler verifies that the original
array (a
) is not used on any execution path following the in-place
update. This involves also checking that no alias of a
is used.
Generally, most language constructs produce new arrays, but some
(slicing) create arrays that alias their input arrays.
When defining a function parameter or return type, we can mark it as unique by prefixing it with an asterisk. For example:
def modify (a: *[]i32) (i: i32) (x: i32): *[]i32 =
a with [i] = a[i] + x
For bulk in-place updates with multiple values, use the scatter
function in the basis library. In the parameter declaration a:
*[i32]
, the asterisk means that the function modify
has been
given “ownership” of the array a
, meaning that any caller of
modify
will never reference array a
after the call again.
This allows the with
expression to perform an in-place update.
After a call modify a i x
, neither a
or any variable that
aliases a
may be used on any following execution path.
3.9.1. Alias Analysis¶
The rules used by the Futhark compiler to determine aliasing are
intuitive in the intra-procedural case. Aliases are associated with
entire arrays. Aliases of a record are tuple are tracked for each
element, not for the record or tuple itself. Most constructs produce
fresh arrays, with no aliases. The main exceptions are if
,
loop
, function calls, and variable literals.
After a binding
let a = b
, that simply assigns a new name to an existing variable, the variablea
aliasesb
. Similarly for record projections and patterns.The result of an
if
aliases the union of the aliases of the components.The result of a
loop
aliases the initial values, as well as any aliases that the merge parameters may assume at the end of an iteration, computed to a fixed point.The aliases of a value returned from a function is the most interesting case, and depends on whether the return value is declared unique (with an asterisk
*
) or not. If it is declared unique, then it has no aliases. Otherwise, it aliases all arguments passed for non-unique parameters.
3.9.2. In-place Updates and Higher-Order Functions¶
Uniqueness typing generally interacts poorly with higher-order functions. The issue is that we cannot control how many times a function argument is applied, or to what, so it is not safe to pass a function that consumes its argument. The following two conservative rules govern the interaction between uniqueness types and higher-order functions:
In the expression
let p = e1 in ...
, if any in-place update takes place in the expressione1
, the value bound byp
must not be or contain a function.A function that consumes one of its arguments may not be passed as a higher-order argument to another function.
3.10. Modules¶
mod_bind ::= "module"id
mod_param
* "=" [":"mod_type_exp
] "="mod_exp
mod_param ::= "("id
":"mod_type_exp
")" mod_type_bind ::= "module" "type"id
"="mod_type_exp
Futhark supports an ML-style higher-order module system. Modules can contain types, functions, and other modules and module types. Module types are used to classify the contents of modules, and parametric modules are used to abstract over modules (essentially module-level functions). In Standard ML, modules, module types and parametric modules are called structs, signatures, and functors, respectively. Module names exist in the same name space as values, but module types are their own name space.
3.10.1. Module bindings¶
3.10.1.1. module m = mod_exp
¶
Binds m to the module produced by the module expression mod_exp
.
Any name x in the module produced by mod_exp
can then be accessed
with m.x
.
3.10.1.2. module m : mod_type_exp = mod_exp
¶
Shorthand for module m = mod_exp : mod_type_exp
.
3.10.1.3. module m mod_params... = mod_exp
¶
Shorthand for module m = \mod_params... -> mod_exp
. This produces
a parametric module.
3.10.1.4. module type mt = mod_type_exp
¶
Binds mt to the module type produced by the module type expression
mod_type_exp
.
3.10.2. Module Expressions¶
mod_exp ::=qualid
|mod_exp
":"mod_type_exp
| "\" "("id
":"mod_type_exp
")" [":"mod_type_exp
] "->"mod_exp
|mod_exp
mod_exp
| "("mod_exp
")" | "{"dec
* "}" | "import"stringlit
A module expression produces a module. Modules are collections of bindings produced by declarations (dec). In particular, a module may contain other modules or module types.
3.10.2.1. qualid
¶
Evaluates to the module of the given name.
3.10.2.2. (mod_exp)
¶
Evaluates to mod_exp
.
3.10.2.3. mod_exp : mod_type_exp
¶
Module ascription evaluates the module expression and the module type expression, verifies that the module implements the module type, then returns a module that exposes only the functionality described by the module type. This is how internal details of a module can be hidden.
3.10.2.4. \(p: mt1): mt2 -> e
¶
Constructs a parametric module (a function at the module level) that
accepts a parameter of module type mt1
and returns a module of
type mt2
. The latter is optional, but the parameter type is not.
3.10.2.5. e1 e2
¶
Apply the parametric module m1
to the module m2
.
3.10.2.6. { decs }
¶
Returns a module that contains the given definitions. The resulting
module defines any name defined by any declaration that is not
local
, in particular including names made available via
open
.
3.10.2.7. import "foo"
¶
Returns a module that contains the definitions of the file "foo"
relative to the current file.
3.10.3. Module Type Expressions¶
mod_type_exp ::=qualid
| "{"spec
* "}" |mod_type_exp
"with"qualid
type_param
* "="type
| "("mod_type_exp
")" | "("id
":"mod_type_exp
")" "->"mod_type_exp
|mod_type_exp
"->"mod_type_exp
spec ::= "val"id
type_param
* ":"type
| "val"binop
type_param
* ":"type
| ("type" | "type^" | "type~")id
type_param
* "="type
| ("type" | "type^" | "type~")id
type_param
* | "module"id
":"mod_type_exp
| "include"mod_type_exp
| "#["attr
"]"spec
Module types classify modules, with the only (unimportant) difference in expressivity being that modules can contain module types, but module types cannot specify that a module must contain a specific module type. They can specify of course that a module contains a submodule of a specific module type.
A module type expression can be the name of another module type, or a sequence of specifications, or specs, enclosed in curly braces. A spec can be a value spec, indicating the presence of a function or value, an abstract type spec, or a type abbreviation spec.
In a value spec, sizes in types on the left-hand side of a function arrow must not be anonymous. For example, this is forbidden:
val sum: []t -> t
Instead write:
val sum [n]: [n]t -> t
But this is allowed, because the empty size is not to the left of a function arrow:
val evens [n]: [n]i32 -> []i32
3.11. Referencing Other Files¶
You can refer to external files in a Futhark file like this:
import "file"
The above will include all non-local
top-level definitions from
file.fut
is and make them available in the current file (but
will not export them). The .fut
extension is implied.
You can also include files from subdirectories:
import "path/to/a/file"
The above will include the file path/to/a/file.fut
relative to the
including file.
Qualified imports are also possible, where a module is created for the file:
module M = import "file"
In fact, a plain import "file"
is equivalent to:
local open import "file"
To re-export names from another file in the current module, use:
open import "file"
3.12. Attributes¶
attr ::=id
|decimal
|id
"(" [attr
(","attr
)*] ")"
An expression, declaration, pattern, or module type spec can be
prefixed with an attribute, written as #[attr]
. This may affect
how it is treated by the compiler or other tools. In no case will
attributes affect or change the semantics of a program, but it may
affect how well it compiles and runs (or in some cases, whether it
compiles or runs at all). Unknown attributes are silently ignored.
Most have no effect in the interpreter. An attribute can be either an
atom, written as an identifier or number, or compound, consisting
of an identifier and a comma-separated sequence of attributes. The
latter is used for grouping and encoding of more complex information.
3.12.1. Expression attributes¶
Many expression attributes affect second-order array combinators (SOACS). These must be applied to a fully saturated function application or they will have no effect. If two SOACs with contradictory attributes are combined through fusion, it is unspecified which attributes take precedence.
The following expression attributes are supported.
3.12.1.1. trace
¶
Print the value produced by the attributed expression. Used for debugging. Somewhat unreliable outside of the interpreter, and in particular does not work for GPU device code.
3.12.1.2. trace(tag)
¶
Like trace
, but prefix output with tag, which must lexically be
an identifier.
3.12.1.3. break
¶
In the interpreter, pause execution before evaluating the expression. No effect for compiled code.
3.12.1.4. opaque
¶
The compiler will treat the attributed expression as a black box. This is used to work around optimisation deficiencies (or bugs), although it should hopefully rarely be necessary.
3.12.1.5. incremental_flattening(no_outer)
¶
When using incremental flattening, do not generate the “only outer parallelism” version for the attributed SOACs.
3.12.1.6. incremental_flattening(no_intra)
¶
When using incremental flattening, do not generate the “intra-group parallelism” version for the attributed SOACs.
3.12.1.7. incremental_flattening(only_intra)
¶
When using incremental flattening, only generate the “intra-group parallelism” version of the attributed SOACs. Beware: the resulting program will fail to run if the inner parallelism does not fit on the device.
3.12.1.8. incremental_flattening(only_inner)
¶
When using incremental flattening, do not generate multiple versions for this SOAC, but do exploit inner parallelism (which may give rise to multiple versions at deeper levels).
3.12.1.9. noinline
¶
Do not inline the attributed function application. If used within a
parallel construct (e.g. map
), this will likely prevent the GPU
backends from generating working code.
3.12.1.10. sequential
¶
Fully sequentialise the attributed SOAC.
3.12.1.11. sequential_outer
¶
Turn the outer parallelism in the attributed SOAC sequential, but preserve any inner parallelism.
3.12.1.12. sequential_inner
¶
Exploit only outer parallelism in the attributed SOAC.
3.12.1.13. unroll
¶
Fully unroll the attributed loop
. If the compiler cannot
determine the exact number of iterations (possibly after other
optimisations and simplifications have taken place), then this
attribute has no code generation effect, but instead results in a
warning. Be very careful with this attribute: it can massively
increase program size (possibly crashing the compiler) if the loop has
a huge number of iterations.
3.12.1.14. unsafe
¶
Do not perform any dynamic safety checks (such as bound checks) during execution of the attributed expression.
3.12.1.15. warn(safety_checks)
¶
Make the compiler issue a warning if the attributed expression (or its subexpressions) requires safety checks (such as bounds checking) at run-time. This is used for performance-critical code where you want to be told when the compiler is unable to statically verify the safety of all operations.
3.12.2. Declaration attributes¶
The following declaration attributes are supported.
3.12.2.1. noinline
¶
Do not inline any calls to this function. If the function is then
used within a parallel construct (e.g. map
), this will likely
prevent the GPU backends from generating working code.
3.12.2.2. inline
¶
Always inline calls to this function.
3.12.3. Pattern attributes¶
No pattern attributes are currently supported by the compiler itself, although they are syntactically permitted and may be used by other tools.
3.12.4. Spec attributes¶
No spec attributes are currently supported by the compiler itself, although they are syntactically permitted and may be used by other tools.
3.1. Comments¶
Line comments are indicated with
--
and continue until end of line. A contiguous block of line comments beginning with-- |
is a documentation comment and has special meaning to documentation tools. Documentation comments are only allowed immediately before declarations.