In computing, partial evaluation is a technique for several different types of program optimization by specialization. The most straightforward application is to produce new programs which run faster than the originals while being guaranteed to behave in the same way.
A computer program, prog, is seen as a mapping of input data into output data:
, the static data, is the part of the input data known at compile time.
The partial evaluator transforms into by precomputing all static input at compile time. is called the "residual program" and should run more efficiently than the original program. The act of partial evaluation is said to "residualize" to .
Read more about Partial Evaluation: Futamura Projections
Famous quotes containing the words partial and/or evaluation:
“There is no luck in literary reputation. They who make up the final verdict upon every book are not the partial and noisy readers of the hour when it appears; but a court as of angels, a public not to be bribed, not to be entreated, and not to be overawed, decides upon every man’s title to fame. Only those books come down which deserve to last.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Evaluation is creation: hear it, you creators! Evaluating is itself the most valuable treasure of all that we value. It is only through evaluation that value exists: and without evaluation the nut of existence would be hollow. Hear it, you creators!”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)