A Computational Formalization for Partial Evaluation

We formalize a partial evaluator for Eugenio Moggi’s computational metalanguage. This formalization gives an evaluation-order independent view of binding-time analysis and program specialization, including a proper treatment of call unfolding, and enables us to express the essence of “control-based binding-time improvements” for let expressions. Specifically, we prove that the binding-time improvements given by “continuation-based specialization” can be expressed in the metalanguage via monadic laws. ∗A shorter version of this paper (essentially, a version without the proofs of Appendix B) will appear in a special issue of Mathematical Structures in Computer Science devoted to the 1995 Workshop on Logic, Domains, and Programming Languages (LDPL’95) at which this work was presented. The essential results of this work obtained during the fall of 1994 and refined throughout 1995 and 1996 while the first author was at the University of Copenhagen. †Basic Research in Computer Science, Centre of the Danish National Research Foundation. ‡Department of Computer Science 219 Mathematical Sciences, Stillwater, OK 74078-1053, USA. E-mail: [email protected] §Department of Computer Science Ny Munkegade, Building 540, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark. E-mail: [email protected]