On Thu, 2007-04-26 at 00:38 +0200, Tom wrote:
> I have a question about how are function applications compiled. In
> particular, how does the program "know" the difference between f and g
> in:

> But obviously, this cannot be the case, as the functions aren't
> determined in advance at all call sites (in a functional language).
> How does the compiler deal with that? 

It knows the type of the function expression, and that is all
that is required. Incidentally Ocaml evaluates right to left. So 

	f x y z

will be roughly:

	push (eval z)
	push (eval y)
	push (eval x)
	push (eval f)
	apply
	apply
	apply

I guess this simple stack protocol explains why it evaluates right 
to left not left to right.

The real compiler will of course do optimisations not shown above.

-- 
John Skaller <skaller at users dot sf dot net>
Felix, successor to C++: http://felix.sf.net