Formal comment #222 (simplification) Formal semantics should not contain complicating optimizations Reported by: Andre van Tonder Version: 5.92 Pages : 61-73 Summary The current formal semantics contains at least one, and possibly more, unnecessary performance optimizations that complicate it rather more than necessary. Such optimizations have no place in a formal description of the semantics and should be removed. Description An example of such an optimization occurs on pages 69 and 70, where procedure parameters are treated differently depending on whether they are the target of set! in the body of the procedure. This is unnecessary. It clashes with the informal description in the body of the report, and it complicates the semantics with an unnecessary rule [6appN], and an unnecessary variable assigment metafunction that takes about 25 lines (more than half of page 70) to describe. Both of these, and possibly other rules depending on this distinction, should be removed. This is one unnecessary complication, presumably based on optimization considerations, that I noticed. A more careful reading may turn up other optimization-related complications. This formal comment is intended to apply to all cases where the formal semantics may be simplified by discarding optimizations. RESPONSE: The suggestion will be forwarded to the authors of the formal semantics appendix.