Context information for lazy code generation

Abstract

Functional languages like Miranda and Haskell employ a non-strict semantics. This is important for the functional programming style as it allows one to compute with infinite data structures. However, a straightforward implementation of the language will result in a rather inefficient implementation and therefore it is often combined with strictness analysis. A sticky version of the analysis is used to collect the information and annotate the program so that the information can be used by the subsequent passes of the compiler. The strictness analysis and its correctness properties are well understood by means of abstract interpretation whereas its sticky version is more subtle. — The purpose of the present paper is therefore to investigate how far one can go without introducing a sticky version of the analysis and thereby avoid the correctness problems connected with it.