The Second Futamura Projection for Type-Directed Partial Evaluation

Authors

  • Bernd Grobauer
  • Zhe Yang

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/brics.v7i44.20211

Abstract

A generating extension of a program specializes the program with respect to part of the input. Applying a partial evaluator to the program trivially yields a generating extension, but specializing the partial evaluator with respect to the program often yields a more efficient one. This specialization can be carried out by the partial evaluator itself; in this case, the process is known as the second Futamura projection. We derive an ML implementation of the second Futamura projection for Type-Directed Partial Evaluation (TDPE). Due to the differences between `traditional', syntax-directed partial evaluation and TDPE, this derivation involves several conceptual and technical steps. These include a suitable formulation of the second Futamura projection and techniques for making TDPE amenable to self-application. In the context of the second Futamura projection, we also compare and relate TDPE with conventional offline partial evaluation.
We demonstrate our technique with several examples, including
compiler generation for Tiny, a prototypical imperative language.

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Published

2000-06-14

How to Cite

Grobauer, B., & Yang, Z. (2000). The Second Futamura Projection for Type-Directed Partial Evaluation. BRICS Report Series, 7(44). https://doi.org/10.7146/brics.v7i44.20211