Partial Evaluation Based CPS Transformation: An Implementation Case Study

We demonstrate the implementation of a partial evaluation based CPS transformation in the context of pLisp, a Lisp dialect and IDE for beginners. The CPS transformation employs a modular technique that unifies the treatment of the language constructs; we illustrate the transformation by explicating the conversion process for a single construct (viz., if). To the best of our knowledge, this framework is also novel in that the partial evaluation and CPS transformation techniques are implemented in the implementation language of the system itself (i.e., C), as opposed to bootstrapping from an existing Lisp dialect.