Binding Time Analysis: Abstract Interpretation vs. Type Inference

Abstract

Binding time analysis is important in partial evaluators. Its task is to determine which parts of a program can be specialized if some of the expected input is known. Two approaches to do this are abstract interpretation and type inference. We compare two specific such analyses to see which one determines most program parts to be eliminable. The first is the abstract interpretation approach of Bondorf, and the second is the type inference approach o£ Gomard. Both apply to the untyped lambda calculus. We prove that Bondorf's analysis is better than Gomard's.