Automatic Program Specialization by Partial Evaluation: an Introduction

Summary

Partial evaluation is an automatic program optimization technique, similar in concept to, but in several ways different from optimizing compilers. Optimization is achieved by changing the times at which computations are performed. A partial evaluator can be used to overcome losses in performance that are due to highly parameterized, modular software. This has a quite remarkable impact on software development because it allows the design of general and reusable software without the penalty of being too inefficient. This papers gives an introduction to automatic program specialization by off-line partial evaluation.