Control-Flow Analysis of Higher-Order Languages (1991)
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@TECHREPORT{Shivers91control-flowanalysis,
author = {Olin Shivers},
title = {Control-Flow Analysis of Higher-Order Languages},
institution = {},
year = {1991}
}
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Abstract
representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of ONR or the U.S. Government. Keywords: data-flow analysis, Scheme, LISP, ML, CPS, type recovery, higher-order functions, functional programming, optimising compilers, denotational semantics, nonstandard Programs written in powerful, higher-order languages like Scheme, ML, and Common Lisp should run as fast as their FORTRAN and C counterparts. They should, but they don’t. A major reason is the level of optimisation applied to these two classes of languages. Many FORTRAN and C compilers employ an arsenal of sophisticated global optimisations that depend upon data-flow analysis: common-subexpression elimination, loop-invariant detection, induction-variable elimination, and many, many more. Compilers for higherorder languages do not provide these optimisations. Without them, Scheme, LISP and ML compilers are doomed to produce code that runs slower than their FORTRAN and C counterparts. The problem is the lack of an explicit control-flow graph at compile time, something which traditional data-flow analysis techniques require. In this dissertation, I present a technique for recovering the control-flow graph of a Scheme program at compile time. I give examples of how this information can be used to perform several data-flow analysis optimisations, including copy propagation, induction-variable elimination, useless-variable elimination, and type recovery. The analysis is defined in terms of a non-standard semantic interpretation. The denotational semantics is carefully developed, and several theorems establishing the correctness of the semantics and the implementing algorithms are proven. iii ivTo my parents, Julia and Olin. v viContents
