Tail call elimination is an optimization that saves stack space. It replaces a function call with a goto. Tail recursion elimination is the same thing, but with the added constraint that the function is calling itself. Basically, if the very last thing a function A does is return A(params…) then you can eliminate the allocation … Read more
AST means Abstract Syntax Tree, which is basically an abstract representation of code / any syntactic structure. A transformation is an action modifying this tree (i.e. transforming the existing AST to a new AST). For more information have a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_syntax_tree
Having just started on pretty much the same thing a few months ago (on a ten-year-old commercial project, originally written with the “C++ is nothing but C with smart structs” philosophy), I would suggest using the same strategy you’d use to eat an elephant: take it one bite at a time. 🙂 As much as … Read more