Statistics on graph reduction of SASL programs

The execution has been studied of four small and four medium-sized SASL programs, when interpreted by a variant of Turner's combinator reducer. Size, structure and composition of the combinator graph have been analysed at frequent intervals during the reduction process. The most interesting results are summarized and discussed. Nodes of the graph live rather short lives and are usually not shared. Cycles are rare, and linear lists are often short. In most aspects the behaviour of the graph is quite ordinary in the sense that a simple model is sufficient to obtain a good approximation.