9701418 Partial evaluation is an automatic tool for program specialization, customization, and optimization. The goal of this project is to establish partial evaluation technology as the key component of a new methodology for constructing and customizing adaptable software written in modern imperative programming languages. Despite successful applications, current partial evaluation technology is unable to satisfactorily treat modern imperative languages that include object-oriented, multitasking, and exception- handling features. Moreover, partial-evaluator construction does not begin to approach the maturity of compiler construction where well-organized tools sets dramatically ease the burden of designing, building, and modifying systems. The project focuses on the construction of a language-independent tool set for building partial evaluation systems that can handle features found in modern imperative languages. This tool set will be built on top of the IRIS language processing facilities developed in the Arcadia project. The core of the tool set will be a general- purpose specialization environment for Ada 95. The tool set philosophy will be validated by reusing artifacts in (a) the construction of a special-purpose specializer for one or more application domains, and (b) the construction of a second general-purpose specializer for a minimal core of a second language supported by the IRIS tools. ***
