PRL Seminars

Ralph Benzinger


Automatic Complexity Analysis Revisited


January 31, 2000


Comment

In this talk, I'll present my recent work on automatic complexity analysis of functional programs, in particular those synthesized by Nuprl. After defining a simple abstract cost model based on the current call-by-name evaluator, I introduce the notion of symbolic evaluation of open terms and show how we can use this concept to reason about primitive recursive programs with first-order functions, lazy lists, and a subclass of higher-order functions.

In the second part of the talk, I'll present my ACAp System for automatic worst-case time complexity analysis of primitive recursive programs. Some selected examples highlight the use of the system and show the different behavior of call-by-name and call-by-value reduction. I'll conclude my presentation with the popular `But why IS it linear?' prize question.

Slides (ps format)


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