Computational science

Recursion (computer science)

Stack (abstract data type)

Stencil

Garbage collection

Operating system

Parallel computing

Computer science

Call stack

Garbage

Heap (data structure)

Political science

Pointer (user interface)

Programming language

Copying

Computer vision

ACM SIGPLAN Notices

Previous Schemes for implementing full tail-recursion when compiling into C have required some form of "trampoline" to pop the stack. We propose solving the tail-recursion problem in the same manner as Standard ML of New Jersey, by allocating all frames in the (garbage-collected) heap. The Scheme program is translated into continuation-passing style, so the target C functions never return. The C stack pointer then becomes the allocation pointer for a Cheney-style copying garbage collection scheme. Our Scheme can use C function calls, C arguments, C variable-arity functions, and separate compilation without requiring complex block-compilation of entire programs. Our C version of the "Boyer" benchmark is available at ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hb/hbaker/cboyer13.c.

CONS should not CONS its arguments, part II