What Simon is probably referring to is the fact that Fortran compilers
attempt to convert the internal representation of the program into
"SSA-form"
(Static Single Assignment form).
You might want to take a look at the following article that makes this
point well:
"SSA is Functional Programming"
Andrew Appel
ACM SIGPLAN Notices 33:4, April 1998, pp 17-20
Nikhil
Rishiyur S. Nikhil, Compaq Cambridge Research Laboratory
One Kendall Sq., Bldg. 700, Cambridge MA 02139
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; www.crl.digital.research.com
phone +1 (617) 692 7639; fax +1 (617) 692 7650
> ----------
> From: Hans Aberg[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Friday, October 16, 1998 9:30 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Cc: Simon Peyton-Jones
> Subject: RE: Haskell in Scientific Computing?
>
> At 02:30 -0700 98/10/16, Simon Peyton-Jones wrote:
> >Declarative languages *ought* to give a big handle on optimisation.
> >FORTRAN compilers spend a lot of time deriving a functional program
> >from the imperative one they started with, but they have to make
> >conservative approximations. So in principle we might do better.
>
> Exactly what does this mean that FORTRAN compilers derives a functional
> program?
>
> Hans Aberg
> * Email: Hans Aberg <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> * Home Page: <http://www.matematik.su.se/~haberg/>
> * AMS member listing: <http://www.ams.org/cml/>
>
