Abstract compilation: A new implementation paradigm for static analysis

Abstract

For large programs, static analysis can be one of the most time-consuming phases of the whole compilation process. We propose a new paradigm for the implementation of static analyses that is inspired by partial evaluation techniques. Our paradigm does not reduce the complexity of these analyses, but it allows an efficient implementation. We illustrate this paradigm by its application to the problem of control flow analysis of functional programs. We show that the analysis can be sped up by a factor of 2 over the usual abstract interpretation method.