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Metacomputation: Metasystem transitions plus supercompilation

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Book cover Partial Evaluation

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1110))

Abstract

Metacomputation is a computation which involves meta-system transitions(MST for short) from a computing machine M to a metamachine M′ which controls, analyzes, and imitates the work of M. Semantics-based program transformation, such as partial evaluation and supercompilation (SCP), is metacomputation. Metasystem transitions may be repeated, as when a program transformer gets transformed itsef. In this manner MST hierarchies of any height can be formed.

The paper reviews one strain of research which was started in Russia in the late 1960s-early 1970s and became known for the development of supercompilation as a distinct method of program transformation. 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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science Department, The City College of New York, 10031, New York, NY, USA

    Valentin F. Turchin

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  1. Valentin F. Turchin
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Olivier Danvy Robert Glück Peter Thiemann

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Turchin, V.F. (1996). Metacomputation: Metasystem transitions plus supercompilation. In: Danvy, O., Glück, R., Thiemann, P. (eds) Partial Evaluation. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1110. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61580-6_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-61580-6_24

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-61580-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-70589-5

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