From Self-Interpreters to Normalization by Evaluation

Abstract

We characterize normalization by evaluation as the composition of a self-interpreter with a self-reducer using a special representation scheme, in the sense of Mogensen (1992). We do so by deriving in a systematic way an untyped normalization by evaluation algorithm from a standard interpreter for the ?-calculus. The derived algorithm is not novel and indeed other published algorithms may be obtained in the same manner through appropriate adaptations to the representation scheme.