Abstract

. On the basis of an A-normal form intermediate language we formally specify resource allocation in a compiler for a strict functional language. Here, resource is to be understood in the most general sense: registers, temporaries, data representations, etc. All these should be (and can be, but have never been) specified formally. Our approach employs a non-standard annotated type system for the formalization. Although A-normal form turns out not to be the ideal vehicle for this investigation, we can prove some basic properties using the formalization. 1 Resource Allocation Resource allocation in the back end of a compiler is often poorly specified. More often than not register allocation, administration of temporaries, and representation conversions are only specified procedurally [1, 6]. Code generators based on such algorithmic specifications can be hard to maintain or prove correct. Even the authors of such code generators are sometimes not aware of all the invariants that must be ...

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