Nice article, but the all-lowercase titling is so jarring:

“Six Thoughts On Generating C”, Andy Wingo (https://wingolog.org/archives/2026/02/09/six-thoughts-on-generating-c).

Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46945235

On Lobsters: https://lobste.rs/s/j8jnqq/six_thoughts_on_generating_c

#Programming #C #PLDI #Compilers #CodeGeneration #ProgramSynthesis

@screwlisp @kentpitman regarding the discussion we had after the #LispyGopherClimate show ended, MiniKanren is logic programming language embedded in Scheme (sort-of like a Prolog implemented in Scheme and coded with S-expressions), and you can use machine leaning methods like neural networks to guide the search tree of the goal solver mechanism. This paper is an example of what I was talking about.

Even before LLMs were invented, MiniKanren was able to do program synthesis using purely symbolic logic. They developed a prototype called Barliman where you would provide example input->output pairs as constraints, and using a constraint solver, could generalize those examples to a function that generates any output for any input. As a simple example, you could give it the following input-output pairs:

…and the constraint solver could determine that you are trying to implement the append function for lists and write the code automatically — without LLMs, using purely symbolic logic.

As you might expect, the solver could be very slow, or even diverge (never returning an answer). The paper I mentioned above talks about using neural networks to try to guide the constraint solver to improve the performance and usefulness of the results returned by the solver.

Now imagine applying this technique to other domains besides code generation or optimization, for example, auto-completion, or cache pre-fetching, and building it into a programmable computing environment like Emacs. You could have a tool like “Cursor,” but instead of using LLMs, it uses classical computing and constraint solvers, while taking a fraction of the amount of energy that LLMs use.

#tech #software #AI #LLM #MachineLearning #NeuralNetwork #ConstraintLogic #ConstraintSolver #LogicProgramming #Prolog #MiniKanren #Emacs #Lisp #Scheme #SchemeLang #ProgramSynthesis

Master thesis by Alexandru Dumitriu: "LLM-Driven Synthesis of Concurrent Data Structures with SMR under Weak Memory"

"This thesis introduces a synthesis-verification pipeline that iteratively generates concurrent data structures from partial code specifications [..] We evaluate our approach using established concurrent data structure benchmarks, demonstrating rapid convergence to correct implementations"

https://repository.tudelft.nl/record/uuid:5a857798-276f-4545-af2d-8a381e84df9a

#ProgramSynthesis #SMR #WeakMemory #master #thesis

New book review!

“Computational evolution of neural and morphological development”, Yaochu Jin, reviewed by Renske Vroomans.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10710-024-09499-x

No paywall.

#geneticprogramming #programsynthesis #alife

New issue just announced, including several items with open access:

https://link.springer.com/journal/10710/volumes-and-issues/25-2

#geneticprogramming
#programsynthesis

not that the world really needs more computer science conferences, but i keep wondering if there’s appetite for one focused on procedural generation/generative computation, i.e. the union of PCG, generative art, program synthesis, &c.

mostly, it would really help to have a name for this field that people don’t mistake for consisting entirely of text2image statistical models

#generativeArt #genartclub #generativeAI #procgen #proceduralcontentgeneration #programsynthesis #logicprogramming

RT @[email protected]

Introducing AutumnSynth, a step toward automating scientific discovery through program synthesis.

AutumnSynth synthesizes the source code of a video game from seconds of play.

paper: https://basis.ai/publications/autumn_popl23.pdf

Blog: https://basis.ai/blog/autumn/

Why do this? How does it work?
🦃🧵 https://twitter.com/ZennaTavares/status/1620855534483296256

#cogsci @cogsci #compcogsci #programinduction #programsynthesis