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A symbolic compiler translates a program to symbolic constraints, automatically reducing model checking and synthesis to constraint solving. We show that new applications of constraint solving require domain-specific encodings that yield the required orders of magnitude improvements in solver efficiency. Unfortunately, these encodings cannot be obtained with today's symbolic compilation. We introduce symbolic languages that encapsulate domain-specific encodings under abstractions that behave as their non-symbolic counterparts: client code using the abstractions can be tested and debugged on concrete inputs. When client code is symbolically compiled, the resulting constraints use domain-specific encodings. We demonstrate the idea on the first fully symbolic checker of type systems; a program partitioner; and a parallelizer of tree computations. In each of these case studies, symbolic languages improved on classical symbolic compilers by orders of magnitude.
@InProceedings{bodik_et_al:LIPIcs.SNAPL.2017.2,
author = {Bod{\'\i}k, Rastislav and Chandra, Kartik and Phothilimthana, Phitchaya Mangpo and Yazdani, Nathaniel},
title = {{Domain-Specific Symbolic Compilation}},
booktitle = {2nd Summit on Advances in Programming Languages (SNAPL 2017)},
pages = {2:1--2:17},
series = {Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
ISBN = {978-3-95977-032-3},
ISSN = {1868-8969},
year = {2017},
volume = {71},
editor = {Lerner, Benjamin S. and Bod{\'\i}k, Rastislav and Krishnamurthi, Shriram},
publisher = {Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
address = {Dagstuhl, Germany},
URL = {https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SNAPL.2017.2},
URN = {urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-71334},
doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.SNAPL.2017.2},
annote = {Keywords: Symbolic evaluation, program synthesis, DSLs}
}