Lambda the Ultimate

Non-deterministic choice supports efficient parallel speculation, but unrestricted non-determinism destroys the referential transparency of purely-declarative languages by removing unfoldability and it bears the danger of wasting resources on unncessary computations. While numerous choice mechanisms have been proposed that preserve unfoldability, and some concurrent implementations exist, we believe that no compiled parallel implementation has previously been constructed. This paper presents the design, smantics, implementation and use of a family of bottom-avoiding choice operators for Glasgow parallel Haskell. The subtle semantic properties of our choice operations are described, including a careful classification using an existing framework, together with a discussion of operational semantics issues and the pragmatics of distributed memory implementation.

amb breaks referential transparency (e.g., think about (\x.x+x)(3 amb 5) - how many choice points are there?)

This paper presents the problems, and shows how to implementat bottom-avoiding choice operators in Galsgow parallel Haskell (GPH).

The paper is worth checking out for the references alone, which can server as a useful guide to the subject of non-determinism in functional languages. Section 3 of the paper summarizes the semantic properties of the choice operators, and can be a good place to start reading if you are familiar with the subject.

Which comes first, language or thought?

One view, Bloom points out, "is that there exists a universal core of meaningful distinctions that all humans share, but other distinctions that people make are shaped by the forces of language. On the other hand, language learning might really be the act of learning to express ideas that already exist," as in the case of the situation studied by Hespos and Spelke.