2002•Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer ScienceOpen access

Specialisation of Higher-Order Functions for Debugging

Bernard J. Pope, Lee Naish

Abstract

Because functions are abstract values without convenient print representations, implementing debuggers which support higher-order code is a challenge. We present an algorithm for statically specialising higher-order functions and encoding higher-order values to allow printing. We define our algorithm for a small functional language and discuss how it may be extended to support sophisticated features of modern functional programming languages. This research forms part of a project3 to build a declarative debugger for Haskell, based primarily on source-to-source transformation.

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Key concepts: Haskell, Debugger, Programming language, Computer science, Functional programming, Debugging, Order (exchange), Transformation (genetics)