Abstract (very slightly updated) of Ulrik Schultz's Masters Thesis
(DAIMI '97)
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Block structure is a fundamental mechanism for expressing the scope of
variables in a computation.  Scope can be expressed either explicitly
with formal parameters or implicitly with free variables.  We discuss
the transformations between explicit and implicit scope.  Making scope
explicit is current practice in functional programming: it is called
``lambda-lifting.''
  
Our thesis addresses the transformations between explicit and implicit
scope.  We describe the "lambda-dropping" transformation that restores
implicit scope in a lambda-lifted program.  We show lambda-dropping to
be a useful transformation that can be applied to clarify the
structure of programs and to increase the efficiency of recursive
functions.  In addition, we demonstrate that lambda-dropping is of
practical use as a back-end in a partial evaluator.