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Multiple Specialization of WAM Code

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Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages (PADL 1999)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1551))

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Abstract

Program specialization is normally supported by global analysis of the program. Compilers use the information deduced to generate more efficient, specialized implementations of the program. This specialization can be single or multiple, depending if each procedure of the program is specialized into one or more versions. We present a Prolog compiler that does multiple specialization, using an algorithm that works over the WAM code, deducing the reachable procedure activations based on local analysis. The idea is to use the analysis that is done in the Prolog to WAM compilation, and that generates local specialized instructions, and to propagate this information through the entire program. The creation of multiple versions of predicates allows the propagation to be interprocedural, and to achieve global program specialization. Results from an implementation generating C code as target language are presented, showing a performance comparable to native code Prolog compilers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. DCC-FC & LIACC, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 823 - 4150, Porto, Portugal

    Michel Ferreira & Luís Damas

Authors
  1. Michel Ferreira
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  2. Luís Damas
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, New Mexico State University, Box 30001, New Science Hall (MS CS) Stewart Street, Las Cruces, NM, 88003, USA

    Gopal Gupta

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© 1998 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ferreira, M., Damas, L. (1998). Multiple Specialization of WAM Code. In: Gupta, G. (eds) Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages. PADL 1999. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1551. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49201-1_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-49201-1_17

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-65527-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49201-6

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