Metacompilation is a

computation A computation is any type of arithmetic or non-arithmetic calculation that is well-defined. Common examples of computation are mathematical equation solving and the execution of computer algorithms. Mechanical or electronic devices (or, hist ...

which involves

metasystem A metasystem or meta-system is a "system about other systems", such as describing, generalizing, modelling, or analyzing the other system(s). It links the concepts of a system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that ...

transitions (MST) from a computing machine ''M'' to a metamachine ''M' '' which controls, analyzes and imitates the work of ''M''.

Semantic Semantics is the study of linguistic Meaning (philosophy), meaning. It examines what meaning is, how words get their meaning, and how the meaning of a complex expression depends on its parts. Part of this process involves the distinction betwee ...

s-based program transformation, such as

partial evaluation In computing, partial evaluation is a technique for several different types of program optimization by specialization. The most straightforward application is to produce new programs that run faster than the originals while being guaranteed to ...

and supercompilation (SCP), is metacomputation. Metasystem transitions may be repeated, as when a program transformer gets transformed itself. In this manner MST hierarchies of any height can be formed. The Fox paper reviews one strain of research which was started in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

by Valentin Turchin's

REFAL Refal ("Recursive functions algorithmic language"; ) "is a functional programming language oriented toward symbolic computations", including " string processing, language translation, ndartificial intelligence". It is one of the oldest members ...

system in the late 1960s-early 1970s and became known for the development of supercompilation as a distinct method of

program transformation A program transformation is any operation that takes a computer program and generates another program. In many cases the transformed program is required to be semantically equivalent to the original, relative to a particular Formal semantics of p ...

. After a brief description of the history of this research line, the paper concentrates on those results and problems where supercompilation is combined with repeated metasystem transitions.

External links

Papers on metacompilation

an introduction to supercompilation {{prog-lang-stub Compiler construction

See also

External links