Dex

Dex (named for "index") is a research language for typed, functional array processing. The goal of the project is to explore:

• Type systems for array programming
• Mathematical program transformations like differentiation and integration
• User-directed compilation to parallel hardware
• Interactive and incremental numerical programming and visualization

To learn more, check out our workshop paper, our tutorial or these example programs:

• Dex prelude
• Mandelbrot set
• Ray tracer
• Estimating pi
• Hamiltonian Monte Carlo
• ODE integrator
• Sierpinski triangle
• Basis function regression
• Brownian bridge

🚨 Dex is an experimental research project at an early stage of development. Expect monstrous bugs and razor-sharp edges!

🤝 Contributions welcome! See our issue tracker for good first issues, or browse by thematic labels.

Dependencies

• Install stack
• Install LLVM 9
  • Ubuntu/Debian: apt-get install llvm-9-dev
  • macOS: brew install [email protected]
    • Make sure [email protected] is on your PATH before building. Example: export PATH="$(brew --prefix [email protected])/bin:$PATH"
• Install clang (may be installed together with llvm)
  • Ubuntu/Debian: apt-get install clang
  • macOS: installs with llvm
• Install libpng (often included by default in *nix platforms)
  • Ubuntu/Debian: apt-get install libpng-dev
  • macOS: brew install libpng

Building

• Build Dex in development mode: make
• Run tests in development mode: make tests
• Install a release version of Dex: make install

The default installation directory is $HOME/.local/bin, so make sure to add that directory to $PATH after installing Dex. To install Dex somewhere else, set the PREFIX environment variable before running make install. For example, PREFIX=$HOME make install installs dex in $HOME/bin.

It is convenient to set up a dex alias (e.g. in .bashrc) for running Dex in development mode:

# Linux:
alias dex="stack exec dex -- --lib-path lib"

# macOS:
alias dex="stack exec --stack-yaml=stack-macos.yaml dex -- --lib-path lib"

Running

• Traditional REPL: dex repl
• Execute script: dex script examples/pi.dx
• Live-updated notebook display dex web examples/pi.dx (html) or dex watch examples/pi.dx (terminal).

License

BSD-3

This is an early-stage research project, not an official Google product.