# The ION machine

One of the many problems with our "ultimate" compiler is that we used a rich powerful language based on lambda calculus to build a shoddy compiler for bare-bones lambda calculus.

Let us begin anew from a lower level. We take a page from Knuth’s The Art of Computer Programming and introduce a mythical computer: the International Obfuscated Nonce (ION) machine, so named because it’s based on a one-time random design used in an entry to the 26th International Obfuscated C Code Contest.

The basic unit of data is a 32-bit word. Memory is an array of 32-bit words, indexed by 32-bit words. Among the registers are the heap pointer HP and the stack pointer SP. The instruction set consists of the usual suspects: loading and storing words, arithmetic, jumps. The contents of memory are initially undefined. We write Int for the type of 32-bit words. (Using Word32 requires more imports and conversions here and there.)

▶ Toggle extensions and imports

data VM = VM { sp :: Int, hp :: Int, mem :: Map Int Int }


We take advantage of native 32-bit words rather than encode numbers in pure lambda calculus, at the cost of introducing combinators that correspond to native arithmetic instructions.

Let n be a 32-bit word. If n lies in [0..127], n represents a combinator, otherwise n represents the application of the expression represented by load n to the expression represented by load (n + 1). There is an exception to this rule: if load n = 35 (the ASCII code of "#") then n represents the 32-bit constant returned by load (n + 1).

This implies we can never refer to an application held in the first 128 memory locations, and also implies we have limited ourselves to at most 128 different combinators.

When possible, combinators are represented by the ASCII code of a related character. For example, 66 is the B combinator, since ord 'B' == 66 and 42 is the multiply combinator, since ord '*' == 42.

We initialize HP to 128, the bottom of the heap, which grows upwards. We set SP to the highest memory address, the bottom of the stack, which grows downwards. The stack keeps track of where we’ve been as we walk up and down the left spine of the tree representing the combinatory logic term being evaluated.

new :: VM
new = VM maxBound 128 mempty

load :: Int -> VM -> Int
load k vm = mem vm ! k

store :: Int -> Int -> VM -> VM
store k v vm = vm{mem = M.insert k v $mem vm} app :: Int -> Int -> VM -> (Int, VM) app x y vm@VM{hp} = (hp, store hp x$ store (hp + 1) y $vm { hp = hp + 2 }) push :: Int -> VM -> VM push n vm@VM{sp} = store (sp - 1) n$ vm{sp = sp - 1}


## Sharing economy

We earlier noted that applying the S combinator causes two nodes to refer to the same subterm. This sharing saves room, but we can save more.

Suppose two nodes X and Y point to the same subterm T. On reducing X, our reduce function created a new subterm U, and changed X to point to U and left Y pointing to T (reminiscent of copy-on-write).

Instead, we should simply replace T with U so that reducing either one of X or Y causes both to point to U afterwards. This strategy is known as lazy evaluation, and our lazy function below carries it out.

Even though the result is the same, we see this order as different to normal order, because we reduce both X and Y (and possibly other nodes) even if they are not the two left-most subterms.

The tacit application of load n to load (n + 1) creates complications with lazy evaluation, which we work around with the aid of the identity combinator. For example, if an application evaluates to K, then we replace it with IK.

## The numbers game

For primitive functions, we use a trick described in depth by Naylor and Runciman, "The Reduceron reconfigured and re-evaluated": we introduce a combinator called # and reduce, say, # 42 f to f(# 42) for any f. For example, the term (I#2)(K(#3)S)(+)) reduces to (+)(#3)(#2).

In this fashion, the first two arguments of (+) are always primitive integers, so our code for reducing (+)(#m)(#n) simply pulls out the words m and n from certain locations in memory and returns #s where s == m + n modulo 2^32.

This scheme resembles the approach described by Peyton Jones and Launchbury, "Unboxed values as first class citizens in a non-strict function language". For example, they define integer subtraction as follows:

(-) p q = case p of
Int p# -> case q of
Int q# -> case (p# -# q#) of
t# -> Int t#

After Scott-encoding, we have:

(-) p q = p (\p# -> q(\q# -> (p# -# q#) \t# -> Int t#))

In other words, using their notation, 42 f reduces to f(42#). However, our subtraction operator also boxes the result, while they have a separate boxing step, which is better for optimization. We may wish to follow suit and split off boxing, though it likely means introducing supercombinators to reap the benefits.

We support the operations + - / * % = L. The first 5 have the same meaning they do in C, while the last 2 are equivalent to C’s (==) and (<=).

We add a couple of useful macros: the R combinator (equivalent to CC) and the (:) combinator (equivalent to B(BK)(BCT)).

Below, the I combinator is not lazy: for instance, every time we encounter the subterm I(I(Ix)) we must reduce three I combinators. The competition version of this code does lazily evaluate I combinators, but consequently treads carefully near the top of the stack.

arg' :: Int -> VM -> Int
arg' n vm = load (load (sp vm + n) vm + 1) vm

arg :: Int -> VM -> (Int, VM)
arg n vm = (arg' n vm, vm)

app' :: (VM -> (Int, VM)) -> (VM -> (Int, VM)) -> VM -> (Int, VM)
app' f g vm = let
(x, vm1) = f vm
(y, vm2) = g vm1
in app x y vm2

apparg :: Int -> Int -> VM -> (Int, VM)
apparg m n vm = app (arg' m vm) (arg' n vm) vm

wor n = (,) n
com = wor . ord

lazy n f g vm = let
(p, vm1) = f vm
(q, vm2) = g vm1
dst = load (sp vm + n) vm
in store dst p (store (dst + 1) q vm2) { sp = sp vm + n}

numberArg n vm = load (fst (arg n vm) + 1) vm

builtin :: Int -> VM -> VM
builtin c vm = case chr c of
'I' -> store (sp vm + 1) (fst $arg 1 vm) vm { sp = sp vm + 1 } 'K' -> lvm 2 (com 'I') (arg 1) 'Y' -> lvm 1 (arg 1) (wor$ load (sp vm + 1) vm)
'T' -> lvm 2 (arg 2) (arg 1)
'S' -> lvm 3 (apparg 1 3) (apparg 2 3)
'B' -> lvm 3 (arg 1) (apparg 2 3)
'C' -> lvm 3 (apparg 1 3) (arg 2)
'R' -> lvm 3 (apparg 2 3) (arg 1)
'#' -> lvm 2 (arg 2) (wor $load (sp vm + 1) vm) ':' -> lvm 4 (apparg 4 1) (arg 2) '=' | num 1 == num 2 -> lvm 2 (com 'I') (com 'K') | otherwise -> lvm 2 (com 'K') (com 'I') 'L' | num 1 <= num 2 -> lvm 2 (com 'I') (com 'K') | otherwise -> lvm 2 (com 'K') (com 'I') '*' -> lvm 2 (com '#') (wor$ num 1 * num 2)
'+' -> lvm 2 (com '#') (wor $num 1 + num 2) '-' -> lvm 2 (com '#') (wor$ num 1 - num 2)
'/' -> lvm 2 (com '#') (wor $num 1 div num 2) '%' -> lvm 2 (com '#') (wor$ num 1 mod num 2)
'?' -> error "?"
where
num n = numberArg n vm
lvm n f g = lazy n f g vm


## ION I/O

For us, a program P is a function from a string to a string, where strings are Scott-encoded lists of characters.

To run P on standard input and output, we initialize the VM with P(0?)(.)(T1) then repeatedly reduce until asked to reduce the (.) combinator.

The 0 combinator takes one argument, say x. The term 0x reduces to IK at the end of input or (:)(#c)(0?) where c is the next input character. The unused argument x is a consequence of the ION machine’s peculiar encoding of applications and the need to ensure there is at most one 0 combinator in the heap.

The 1 combinator takes two arguments, say x and y. The first argument x should be an integer constant, that is, #c for some c. Then the character with ASCII code c is printed on standard output, and the expression 1xy is reduced to y(.)(T1).

(In ION assembly, symbols, letters and digits are just names of combinators. In particular, the (.) combinator is not a binary operator representing function composition. Similarly, 0 and 1 do not represent integers; the names of these combinators were inspired by the file descriptors of standard input and output.)

eval :: Monad m => (Int -> VM -> m (Maybe VM)) -> VM -> m VM
eval exts vm@VM{sp} = let n = load sp vm in
if n >= 128 then eval exts $store (sp - 1) (load n vm) vm { sp = sp - 1 } else if n == ord '.' then pure vm else eval exts =<< (maybe (builtin n vm) id <$> exts n vm)

extsIO :: Int -> VM -> IO (Maybe VM)
extsIO n vm = case chr n of
'0' -> do
b <- isEOF
if b then lvm 1 (com 'I') (com 'K')
else do
c <- getChar
lvm 1 (app' (com ':') (app' (com '#') (com c))) (app' (com '0') (com '?'))
'1' -> do
putChar $chr$ numberArg 1 vm
lvm 2 (app' (arg 2) (com '.')) (app' (com 'T') (com '1'))
_ -> pure Nothing
where
lvm n f g = pure $Just$ lazy n f g vm

evalIO :: VM -> IO VM
evalIO = eval extsIO


## Machine shop

Edward Kmett’s talk "Combinators Revisited" contains many relevant references and ideas.

Other choices for implementing lambda calculus include:

Ben Lynn blynn@cs.stanford.edu 💡