Abstract
Generic functions are defined by induction on the structural representation of types. As a consequence, by defining just a single generic operation, one acquires this operation over any particular type. An instance on a specific type is generated by interpretation of the type’s structure. A direct translation leads to extremely inefficient code that involves many conversions between types and their structural representations. In this paper we present an optimization technique based on compile-time symbolic evaluation. We prove that the optimization removes the overhead of the generated code for a considerable class of generic functions. The proof uses typing to identify intermediate data structures that should be eliminated. In essence, the output after optimization is similar to hand-written code.
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Alimarine, A., Smetsers, S. (2004). Optimizing Generic Functions. In: Kozen, D. (eds) Mathematics of Program Construction. MPC 2004. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3125. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27764-4_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27764-4_3
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