Needed Computations Shortcutting Needed Steps

Needed Computations Shortcutting Needed Steps

We define a compilation scheme for a constructor-based strongly-sequential graph rewriting system which shortcuts some needed steps. The object code, what the compiler produces on input the rewriting system, is another constructor-based graph rewriting system that is normalizing for the original system when using an innermost strategy. Hence, the object code can be easily implemented by eager f...

Ensuring the quasi-termination of needed narrowing computations

We present a characterization of first-order functional programs which are quasiterminating w.r.t. the symbolic execution mechanism of needed narrowing, i.e., computations in these programs consist of a sequence of finitely many different function calls (up to variable renaming). Quasi-terminating programs are particularly useful for program analysis and transformation, since in this context qu...

On the Amount of Randomness Needed in Distributed Computations

We treat the number of random bits as a computational resource in distributed computations. We give a concrete application of these ideas by characterizing the number of random bits necessary and suucient to elect a leader in an anonymous network of processors by a probabilistic algorithm with overwhelming probability. Our main result is a proof that a constant number of random bits is actually...

Determination Needed

Number needed to treat (NNT); number needed to harm (NNH).