Feature request: Pure function annotation and analysis

Language Design
1

I would like to mark certain functions as pure and have the compiler enforce this guarantee, it would allow it to call only pure functions and disallow calling out to Java. Moreover, the compiler can infer the purity of a function in certain situations and may provide a warning to mark it pure, etc…

example:

pure fun goodPlus(x: Int, y: Int): Int = x + y // ok
pure fun badPlus(x: Int, y: Int): Int {
   launchTheMissles() // impure function or call to Java
   return (x + y)
} // compile error

// accepts only pure functions
fun higherOrder(f: pure (Int,Int) -> Int): Int = f(100,200)
higherOrder(goodPlus) // ok
higherOrder(badPlus) // compile error

Motivation:

  • I want to build a virtual dom(like React) in Kotlin and having a purity guaranty allows a significant performance optimization.
  • allows memorization without worries.
  • may help the compiler optimize better.
  • equational reasoning, easier to comprehend.
  • a lot more benefits…

There are many many benefits to referential transparency (purity). I would like the compiler to provide a hard guarantee that can be trusted.

18 Likes
2

A similar construct is supported by D (dlang.org): Functions - D Programming Language

1 Like
3

I think if this is a built-in construct, you can do more advanced things with them.
An example would be inlining if it’s a nested function.