An Algorithm of Generalization in Positive Supercompilation

This paper presents a termination technique for positive supercompilation, based on notions from term algebra. The technique is not particularily biased towards positive supercompilation, but also works for deforestation and partial evaluation. It appears to be well suited for partial deduction too. The technique guarantees termination, yet it is not overly conservative. Our technique can be viewed as an instance of Martens ' and Gallagher's recent framework for global termination of partial deduction, but it is more general in some important respects, e.g. it uses well-quasi orderings rather than well-founded orderings. Its merits are illustrated on several examples