Optimising Recursive Functions Yielding Multiple Results in Tuples in a Lazy Functional Language

Abstract. We discuss a new optimisation for recursive functions yielding multiple results in tuples for lazy functional languages, like Clean and Haskell. This optimisation improves the execution time of such functions and also reduces the amount of memory allocated in the heap by these functions, which reduces garbage collection costs. In some cases execution time is improved by more than a factor of two and allocation costs by a factor of four. Furthermore, the space leak that is caused by selector nodes is removed. This is achieved by reusing nodes allocated in the previous iteration of the recursion to create the nodes for the next iteration, by updating these nodes. Only the parts of the nodes that have changed are updated. Because of these updates, the code that is used to select an element of a tuple is not executed anymore for many selections, because the selector node was overwritten with a new selector node or the result before it is evaluated.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: IFL
• Authors: John H. G. van Groningen
• Keywords: Execution Time, Formal Methods, IFL 1999, Lazy Functional Languages, Selector Node