Partial Evaluation

Abstract

The use of meta-interpreters offers a principled way to tailor a language to a programmer's needs. Adding another layer of meta-interpretation can produce any additional information that is required during the computation or any additional control over the computation. Sterling and Beer [1986] make a strong appeal for structuring programs into multiple layers of meta-interpreters for expert system construction. Each layer of interpretation has its own clear semantics and the boundary between the layers is clearly defined. This is unlike the confusion that occurs if extensive use is made of reflective constructs within languages to move between conceptual layers of meta-interpreters.