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Re:Static Single Assignment Book [pdf] by mdaniel on Tuesday April 14, 2015 @05:45PM (#9377579)
> what makes SSA so special for compiler construction

It makes doing immutability and loop invariant reasoning a ton easier, along with constant propagation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_single_assignment_form

Re:Static Single Assignment Book [pdf] by bishc on Tuesday April 14, 2015 @06:50PM (#9377850)
More generally, SSA means implicit use/def information. Use/def information and traversal are critical components of many static analyses and transformations: having the IR in SSA form greatly simplifies reasoning about and implementing these analyses and transformations.