Dynamic Storage and Retrieval in Sparsity Programming

It is shown that sparsity programming is no more than a substitution of a higher level microcompiler for a basic microcompiler in the storage retrieval and processing involving elements of linear and multidimensional arrays. The substitution property of microcompilers permits the coding of a program first in a natural language using formal subscripts and then converting the conventional coding into a sparsity coding after the conventional coding has been fully debugged. This two-stage process not only preserves coding efficiency but also will generally shorten the overall program debugging time. It additionally provides for division of labor between the conventional coder and the sparsity coder. A formal list structuring strategy which has built-in "garbage collection" for sparsity programming is described in detail. This strategy constitutes a conversion guide from conventional to sparsity programming.