Technical Term: Compiler-Optimization

Seeking Referential Transparency

In the landscape of modern compiler design, a fundamental tension exists between preserving the elegance of high-level abstractions and generating efficient machine code. The Fidelity framework confronts this challenge head-on. By leveraging a powerful insight, referential transparency, the Firefly compiler provides a natural decision point for compilation strategies. At the heart our F# native compiler lies the Program Hypergraph (PHG), which analyzes code to identify any referentially transparent regions. This analysis drives a sophisticated compilation strategy that chooses between two powerful computational models: interaction nets for pure, parallel computations and delimited continuations for effectful, sequential operations.