Continuation conscious compilation

This paper proposes some (unimplemented) ideas for the compilation of Scheme-like languages where functions may be specialized with respect to some of the continuations with which they are invoked. This allows for some optimizations, for instance, when a frame to be pushed and the frame on top of the continuation can be combined into a single and simplified frame. Among possible improvements are: intermediate data structure elimination and removal of useless calculations. Functions can therefore be compiled with respect to their near future and reorganize it when appropriate.The compilation technique is based on a program transformation named Abstract Continuation Passing Style that makes continuation (i.e. stack) frames explicit. Shape of continuations is approximated to determine which frames would gain by being combined together then partial evaluation is used to determine the behavior of combined frames. Our main results cover local deforestation-like effect as well as iterative compilation of associatively wrapped recursions converting, for example, a recursive unary factorial into an iterative binary one.