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The maintenance of intermediate values in goal-directed evaluation

Published:01 September 1992Publication History
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Abstract

In programming languages that support goal-directed evaluation to make use of alternative results, an expression can produce a value, suspend, and later be resumed to produce another value. This causes control backtracking to earlier points in a computation and complicates the maintenance of intermediate values. This paper presents a space-efficient algorithm computing the lifetimes of intermediate values that is used by an optimizing compiler for the Icon programming language. The algorithm is applicable to other programming languages that employ goal-directed evaluation.

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              cover image ACM Letters on Programming Languages and Systems
              ACM Letters on Programming Languages and Systems  Volume 1, Issue 3
              Sept. 1992
              104 pages
              ISSN:1057-4514
              EISSN:1557-7384
              DOI:10.1145/151640
              Issue’s Table of Contents

              Copyright © 1992 ACM

              Publisher

              Association for Computing Machinery

              New York, NY, United States

              Publication History

              • Published: 1 September 1992
              Published in loplas Volume 1, Issue 3

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