Rewriting Haskell Strings

Abstract The Haskell String type is notoriously inefficient. We introduce a new data type, ByteString, based on lazy lists of byte arrays, combining the speed benefits of strict arrays with lazy evaluation. Equational transformations based on term rewriting are used to deforest intermediate ByteStrings automatically. We describe novel fusion combinators with improved expressiveness and performance over previous functional array fusion strategies. A library for ByteStrings is implemented, providing a purely functional interface, which approaches the speed of low-level mutable arrays in C. Key words: Program fusion, Deforestation, Functional programming

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: PADL
• Authors: Duncan Coutts, Don Stewart, Roman Leshchinskiy
• Keywords: Functional Array Fusion, Haskell String Type, Low-level Mutable Arrays, PADL 2007, Programming Languages