Type Inference for Late Binding. The SmallEiffel Compiler.

International audienceThe SmallEiffel compiler uses a simple type inference mechanism to translate Eiffel source code to C code. The most important aspect in our technique is that many occurrences of late binding are replaced by static binding. Moreover, when dynamic dispatch cannot be removed, inlining is still possible. The advantage of this approach is that it speeds up execution time and decreases considerably the amount of generated code. SmallEiffel compiler source code itself is a large scale benchmark used to show the quality of our results. Obviously, this efficient technique can also be used for class-based languages without dynamic class creation: for example, it is possible for C++ or Java and not possible for Smalltalk