INTER-PROCEDURAL TYPE PROPAGATION FOR DEVIRTUALIZATION

Intra-procedural and inter-procedural dynamic type propagation can be used to optimize code by devirtualizing virtual functions. In the intra-procedural pass each function in the program is inspected. If the dynamic type of a variable within the function is determined, the static type is replaced by the dynamic type. If the dynamic type of a variable within the function is not determinable, a placeholder type is inserted. After each function and each statement in the function and each statement outside of the function is examined, an attempt is made to resolve all of the placeholder types references created in the first pass, replacing the placeholder type with the dynamic type. This process is iterated until additional dynamic type determination ends.