PR #1459: Efficient Array Swap via HUGR's Native Swap Operation

Continuing my work on Quantinuum Guppy: I added an efficient array swap function for quantum computing.

When quantum developers needed to swap two elements in an array (like swapping qubits at different positions), they had to use a workaround function (mem_swap) that was less efficient than it could be.

In PR #1459, I added a new array_swap function that compiles directly to HUGR’s native swap operation. This means swapping array elements now translates to optimized low-level operations instead of going through multiple steps.

By providing a direct path from high-level Python code to optimized operations, developers can write cleaner code that runs more efficiently on quantum hardware.

To be precise: array_swap compiles to an optimized real-time classical operation on the quantum computer’s control system — not a gate acting on qubits.

As always, I appreciate the Guppy contributors at Quantinuum for their help and collaboration.

For more technical details, refer to PR #1459.