Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Specification-Driven Optimization, Sheena Day

Dissertations and Theses

Traditionally, optimizing transformations have been built into compilers. The end-user has little or no control over guiding any optimizations that may be applied by the compiler. Moreover, the compiler-writer does not have a simple way to direct the optimizations. Thus, many potentially beneficial opportunities for code optimization may be lost. We have built a system that allows the user to participate in guiding source-to-source transformations via the specification of rewrite rules. A clean separation of the rules from the strategy of applying them makes the system easier to use and modify, compared to other integrated systems. This is especially relevant …