Implementing circularity using metaprogramming

Given a tree whose leaves are labeled by numbers, let us replace every label by the minimum label without traversing the tree twice.

type tree = Leaf of int | Branch of tree * tree;; let repmin (t:tree) : tree = let present = ref max_int in let make = .!.<fun future -> .~( let rec process = function | Leaf x -> present := min x !present; .<Leaf future>. | Branch (t1,t2) -> .<Branch (.~(process t1), .~(process t2))>. in process t)>. in make !present;; repmin (Branch (Branch (Leaf 1, Leaf 2), Leaf 3));; (* Branch (Branch (Leaf 1, Leaf 1), Leaf 1) *)

Julia L. Lawall, 2001. Implementing circularity using partial evaluation. In Proceedings of PADO 2001: 2nd symposium on programs as data objects, ed. Olivier Danvy and Andrzej Filinski, 84–102. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2053. (slides)