Callbyname definition

Callbyname





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From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  call-by-name
       
          (CBN) (Normal order reduction, leftmost, outermost reduction).
          An argument passing convention (first provided by {ALGOL 60}?)
          where argument expressions are passed unevaluated.  This is
          usually implemented by passing a pointer to some code which


          will return the value of the argument and an environment
          giving the values of its {free variable}s.  This {evaluation
          strategy} is guaranteed to reach a {normal form} if one
          exists.
       
          When used to implement {functional programming} languages,
          call-by-name is usually combined with {graph reduction} to
          avoid repeated evaluation of the same expression.  This is
          then known as {call-by-need}.  The opposite of call-by-name is
          {call-by-value} where arguments are evaluated before they are
          passed to a function.  This is more efficient but is less
          likely to terminate in the presence of infinite data
          structures and {recursive} functions.  Arguments to {macro}s
          are usually passed using call-by-name.
       
          (1994-11-29)
       
       

















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