Higher-order Matching for Program Transformation

We present a simple, practical algorithm for higher-order matching in the context of automatic program transformation. Our algorithm finds more matches than the standard second-order matching algorithm of Huet and Lang, but it has an equally simple specification, and it is better suited to the transformation of programs in modern programming languages such as Haskell or ML. The algorithm has been implemented as part of the MAG system for transforming functional programs. 1 Background and motivation 1.1 Program transformation Many program transformations are conveniently expressed as higher-order rewrite rules. For example, consider the well-known transformation that turns a tail recursive function into an imperative loop. The pattern f x = if p x then g x else f (h x ) is rewritten to the term f x = j[ var r ; r := x ; while :(p r) do r := h r ; r := g r ; return r ]j Carefully consider the pattern in this rule: it involves two bound variables, namely f and x , and three fre..