Abstract not found

this paper is the first to make the connection with the literature on variable-binding environments.

We present a safe embedding of mutable data structures in functional languages. With safety we mean that confluence and (in some sense) referential transparency are maintained. We develop a static criterion based on abstract interpretation which checks that any side-effect which a function may exert via a destructive update remains invisible. The technique opens up the possibility of designing safe and efficient wide-spectrum languages which combine functional and imperative language constructs.

This paper describes an optimizing compiler system that solves the key problem of aggregate copy elimination. The methods developed rely exclusively on compile-time algorithms, including interprocedural analysis, that are applied to an intermediate data flow representation. By dividing the problem into update-in-place and build-in-place analysis, a small set of relatively simple techniques---edge substitution, graph pattern matching, substructure sharing and substructure targeting---was found to be very powerful. If combined properly and implemented carefully, the algorithms eliminate unnecessary copy operations to a very high degree. No runtime overhead is imposed on the compiled programs