Order-of-demand analysis for lazy languages

Abstract

This paper presents a method for statically inferring a range of information including strictness, evaluation-order, and evaluation-status information in a higher-order polymorphically-typed lazy functional language. This method is based on a compile-time analysis called order-of-demand analysis, which provides safe information about the order in which the values of bound variables are demanded. The time complexity of the analysis is substantially less than that of other approaches such as path analysis [5] and compositional analysis [7] and comparable to that of strictness analysis.