In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language into another language. The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that translate source code from a high-level programming language to a low-level programming language to create an executable program.
Common Lisp (CL) is a dialect of the Lisp programming language, published in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard document ANSI INCITS 226-1994 (S20018). The Common Lisp HyperSpec, a hyperlinked HTML version, has been derived from the ANSI Common Lisp standard.
In computing, an optimizing compiler is a compiler that tries to minimize or maximize some attributes of an executable computer program. Common requirements are to minimize a program's execution time, memory footprint, storage size, and power consumption.
Constant folding and constant propagation are related compiler optimizations used by many modern compilers. An advanced form of constant propagation known as sparse conditional constant propagation can more accurately propagate constants and simultaneously remove dead code.
In computing, inline expansion, or inlining, is a manual or compiler optimization that replaces a function call site with the body of the called function. Inline expansion is similar to macro expansion, but occurs during compilation, without changing the source code, while macro expansion occurs prior to compilation, and results in different text that is then processed by the compiler.
In compiler design, static single assignment form is a property of an intermediate representation (IR) that requires each variable to be assigned exactly once and defined before it is used. Existing variables in the original IR are split into versions, new variables typically indicated by the original name with a subscript in textbooks, so that every definition gets its own version. In SSA form, use-def chains are explicit and each contains a single element.
In compiler theory, dead-code elimination is a compiler optimization to remove dead code. Removing such code has several benefits: it shrinks program size, an important consideration in some contexts, and it allows the running program to avoid executing irrelevant operations, which reduces its running time. It can also enable further optimizations by simplifying program structure. Dead code includes code that can never be executed, and code that only affects dead variables, that is, irrelevant to the program.
In computer science, computer engineering and programming language implementations, a stack machine is a computer processor or a virtual machine in which the primary interaction is moving short-lived temporary values to and from a push down stack. In the case of a hardware processor, a hardware stack is used. The use of a stack significantly reduces the required number of processor registers. Stack machines extend push-down automata with additional load/store operations or multiple stacks and hence are Turing-complete.
In computer science, a tail call is a subroutine call performed as the final action of a procedure. If the target of a tail is the same subroutine, the subroutine is said to be tail recursive, which is a special case of direct recursion. Tail recursion is particularly useful, and is often easy to optimize in implementations.
In computer programming, unreachable code is part of the source code of a program which can never be executed because there exists no control flow path to the code from the rest of the program.
In compiler theory, copy propagation is the process of replacing the occurrences of targets of direct assignments with their values. A direct assignment is an instruction of the form x = y, which simply assigns the value of y to x.
In compiler theory, loop optimization is the process of increasing execution speed and reducing the overheads associated with loops. It plays an important role in improving cache performance and making effective use of parallel processing capabilities. Most execution time of a scientific program is spent on loops; as such, many compiler optimization techniques have been developed to make them faster.
In compiler theory, partial redundancy elimination (PRE) is a compiler optimization that eliminates expressions that are redundant on some but not necessarily all paths through a program. PRE is a form of common subexpression elimination.
Peephole optimization is an optimization technique performed on a small set of compiler-generated instructions; the small set is known as the peephole or window.
In computer science, bounds-checking elimination is a compiler optimization useful in programming languages or runtime systems that enforce bounds checking, the practice of checking every index into an array to verify that the index is within the defined valid range of indexes. Its goal is to detect which of these indexing operations do not need to be validated at runtime, and eliminating those checks.
In computer programming, redundant code is source code or compiled code in a computer program that is unnecessary, such as:
Interprocedural optimization (IPO) is a collection of compiler techniques used in computer programming to improve performance in programs containing many frequently used functions of small or medium length. IPO differs from other compiler optimizations by analyzing the entire program as opposed to a single function or block of code.
In the field of compiler optimizations, available expressions is an analysis algorithm that determines for each point in the program the set of expressions that need not be recomputed. Those expressions are said to be available at such a point. To be available on a program point, the operands of the expression should not be modified on any path from the occurrence of that expression to the program point.
In computing, an extended basic block is a collection of basic blocks of the code within a program with certain properties that make them highly amenable to optimizations. Many compiler optimizations operate on extended basic blocks.
Value numbering is a technique of determining when two computations in a program are equivalent and eliminating one of them with a semantics-preserving optimization.
