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International Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science

FSTTCS 1997: Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science pp 57–73Cite as

Recursion versus iteration at higher-orders

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1346))

Abstract

We extend the well-known analysis of recursion-removal in first-order program schemes to a higher-order language of finitely typed and polymorphically typed functional programs, the semantics of which is based on call-by-name parameter-passing. We introduce methods for recursion-removal, i.e. for translating higher-order recursive programs into higher-order iterative programs, and determine conditions under which this translation is possible. Just as finitely typed recursive programs are naturally classified by their orders, so are finitely typed iterative programs. This syntactic classification of recursive and iterative programs corresponds to a semantic (or computational) classification: the higher the order of programs, the more functions they can compute.

Partly supported by NSF grant CCR-9417382.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Boston University, 02215, Boston, MA, USA

    A. J. Kfoury

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  1. A. J. Kfoury
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S. Ramesh G Sivakumar

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Kfoury, A.J. (1997). Recursion versus iteration at higher-orders. In: Ramesh, S., Sivakumar, G. (eds) Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science. FSTTCS 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1346. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0058023

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0058023

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63876-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69659-9

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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