1
$\begingroup$

I have been toying around with the idea of creating a programming language as a side-project, specifically trying to get extreme performance out of a machine.

I have been thinking about the efficiency-memory tradeoff, and was wondering if it would be at all possible to design a language which always uses a fixed amount of memory. That is, it allocates a large chunk of memory (16K, 64K, 1M, depending on the task), and instead of allocating from a heap, just gives some more memory out of the block we've already allocated.

The idea here is not to be practical, but rather to pose a challenge: design a fast algorithm that works on a fixed amount of memory.

If this sounds like a fun project, please let me know and I'll get on it.

If, however, this is a very naive thing to say (I don't know much about the inner workings of programming languages), I would very much appreciate some resources as to where I can learn more.

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
4
  • $\begingroup$ There are problem instances with sizeable input. $\endgroup$ – greybeard Nov 20 '19 at 6:50
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ C and asm code written for embedded systems is often written in a way that uses no dynamic memory allocation at all. $\endgroup$ – qwr Nov 20 '19 at 7:15
  • $\begingroup$ Your system which allocates memory from a 16K chunk instead of allocating from a heap is called... a heap. $\endgroup$ – user253751 Jan 20 '20 at 12:33
  • $\begingroup$ Regarding the last paragraph of your question, a more interesting project, IMHO, is designing a programming language that helps programmers to predict the amount of memory that a program will use. The amount depends on input data, of course. I heard that Rust is such a programming language. $\endgroup$ – beroal Feb 27 '20 at 15:36
1
$\begingroup$

Yes. At least one variant of C supports this. Its call stacks are bounded in size: you can't call functions within functions indefinitely. It is used for embedded devices.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ In fact all variants of C work the way you described. $\endgroup$ – user253751 Sep 9 '20 at 15:44
0
$\begingroup$

There is No need to create a new language. Use as example c. Get a chunk of memory with malloc() and do wharever you wish with it.

On a typical operating system today you might need to use low level OS functions of you want to keep the memory from beeing swapped due to virtual memory.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ With this approach, it may still be very hard to prove that your program never uses more than a given amount of memory. (It's undecidable in general.) E.g. you have to prove nested function calls cannot nest deeper than a certain bound. You need certain constraints on how functions can be called before you can prove this for every case. $\endgroup$ – reinierpost Dec 20 '19 at 12:05
-1
$\begingroup$

Can a programming language be designed to use a fixed amount of memory?

Yes. Brainf*ck works on an array of $30,000$ memory cells.

But, it's an esoteric language. Meaning, you're not supposed to use it for professional purposes.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
1
  • $\begingroup$ Modern Brainf*ck implementations do not have this limit. $\endgroup$ – user253751 Sep 9 '20 at 15:45

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.