. This paper identifies and solves a class of problems that arise in binding time analysis and more generally in partial evaluation of programs: the approximation and loss of static information due to dynamic expressions with static subexpressions. Solving this class of problems yields substantial binding time improvements and thus dramatically better results not only in the case of partial evaluation but also for static analyses of programs --- this last point actually is related to a theoretical result obtained by Nielson. Our work can also be interpreted as providing a solution to the problem of conditionally static data, the dual of partially static data. We point out which changes in the control flow of a source program may improve its static data flow. Unfortunately they require one to iterate earlier phases of partial evaluation. We show how these changes are subsumed by transforming the source program into continuation-passing style (CPS). The transformed programs get specializ...

ion Selection Specialization P1/A1 Pn/An S1/G 1 Sn/G n S/G P/A 8 Abstraction For each program P i (i=1, ... , n) we identify a program schema S i which describes P i abstractly. This abstraction generates a set of substitutions q i for schema variables. The same abstraction leads from the literals A i to the abstract literals G i . In short, the abstraction step replaces each term P i /A i by its abstraction S i /G i , and we have P i /A i = S i q i /G i q i . Selection Transformation schemata transform the set of abstract terms {S 1 /G 1 , ... , S n /G n } into an abstract term S/G, i.e. a transformation schema is defined as {S 1 /G 1 , ... , S n /G n, S/G}. In general there are several transformation schemata which have {S 1 /G 1 , ... , S n /G n } as input. We select the transformation schema which generates a desired output program schema S together with an abstract literal G. Specialization We apply the substitution q = q 1 ... q n to S/G to get the transformed pr...

This paper should replace a previous work entitled Enhanced Schema-Based Transformations for Logic Programs and their Opportunistic Usage in Program Analysis and Optimisation (Technical Report 95-16, Institut fr Informatik, Universitt Zrich), extending and updating it

this paper and explained below. 3 Schema-Based Transformations of Logic Programs

We propose an opportunistic approach for performing program analysis and optimisation: opportunities for improving a logic program are systematically attempted, either by examining its procedures in an isolated fashion, or by checking for conjunctions within clauses that can be used as joint specifications. Opportunities are represented as enhanced schema-based transformations, generic descriptions of inefficient programming constructs and of how these should be altered in order to confer a better computational behaviour on the program. The programming constructs are described in an abstract manner using an enhanced schema language which allows important features to be highlighted and irrelevant details to be disregarded. 1 Introduction The clean declarative semantics of logic programs hides many performance issues which must be accounted for if the programs are to be executed using the currently available technology. These efficiency issues can be dealt with at an early st...