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Partial type constructors: or, making ad hoc datatypes less ad hoc

Published: 20 December 2019 Publication History

Abstract

Functional programming languages assume that type constructors are total. Yet functional programmers know better: counterexamples range from container types that make limiting assumptions about their contents (e.g., requiring computable equality or ordering functions) to type families with defining equations only over certain choices of arguments. We present a language design and formal theory of partial type constructors, capturing the domains of type constructors using qualified types. Our design is both simple and expressive: we support partial datatypes as first-class citizens (including as instances of parametric abstractions, such as the Haskell Functor and Monad classes), and show a simple type elaboration algorithm that avoids placing undue annotation burden on programmers. We show that our type system rejects ill-defined types and can be compiled to a semantic model based on System F. Finally, we have conducted an experimental analysis of a body of Haskell code, using a proof-of-concept implementation of our system; while there are cases where our system requires additional annotations, these cases are rarely encountered in practical Haskell code.

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  • (2021)Polymorphic Iterable Sequential Effect SystemsACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/345027243:1(1-79)Online publication date: Apr-2021

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Published In

cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages
Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages  Volume 4, Issue POPL
January 2020
1984 pages
EISSN:2475-1421
DOI:10.1145/3377388
Issue’s Table of Contents
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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Publication History

Published: 20 December 2019
Published in PACMPL Volume 4, Issue POPL

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  1. Parametric polymorphism
  2. Type constructors

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  • (2021)Polymorphic Iterable Sequential Effect SystemsACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems10.1145/345027243:1(1-79)Online publication date: Apr-2021

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