Abstract

Introduction Run-time code generation promises to improve the performance and reliability of current and future systems. Optimizations performed at run time make use of values and invariants that cannot be exploited at compile time, yielding code that is often superior to statically optimal code. Furthermore, run-time code generation encourages better structuring of systems: in our experience, the performance of special-purpose code can, in some cases, be matched or exceeded by automatically customized general-purpose code. Run-time code generation also promotes the use of advanced languages because it amortizes the cost of dynamic safety checks and optimizes across abstraction boundaries. Most previous approaches to run-time code generation have been imperative, relying on the programmer to: ffl specify the code to be optimized at run time, usually as a "template" of machine code or as code that builds an abstract syntax tree, ffl s

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