TY - BOOK
T1 - Generalizing Hindley-Milner Type Inference Algorithms
AU - Heeren, Bastiaan
AU - Hage, Jurriaan
AU - Swierstra, S. Doaitse
PY - 2002/7/8
Y1 - 2002/7/8
N2 - Type inferencing according to the standard algorithms W and M often yields uninformative error messages. Many times, this is a consequence of a bias inherent in the algorithms. The method developed here is to first collect constraints from the program, and to solve these afterwards, possibly under the influence of a heuristic. We show the soundness and completeness of our algorithm. The algorithms W and M turn out to be deterministic instances of our method, giving the correctness for W and M with respect to the Hindley-Milner typing rules for free. We also show that our algorithm is more flexible, because it naturally allows the generation of multiple messages.
AB - Type inferencing according to the standard algorithms W and M often yields uninformative error messages. Many times, this is a consequence of a bias inherent in the algorithms. The method developed here is to first collect constraints from the program, and to solve these afterwards, possibly under the influence of a heuristic. We show the soundness and completeness of our algorithm. The algorithms W and M turn out to be deterministic instances of our method, giving the correctness for W and M with respect to the Hindley-Milner typing rules for free. We also show that our algorithm is more flexible, because it naturally allows the generation of multiple messages.
M3 - Other report
T3 - Technical Report Series
BT - Generalizing Hindley-Milner Type Inference Algorithms
PB - Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University
ER -