A versatile constraint-based type inference system

  • Authors:
  • François Pottier

  • Affiliations:
  • INRIA Rocquencourt B.P. 105, 78153 Le Chesnay Cedex France

  • Venue:
  • Nordic Journal of Computing
  • Year:
  • 2000

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Abstract

The combination of subtyping, conditional constraints and rows yields a powerful constraint-based type inference system. We illustrate this claim by proposing solutions to three delicate type inference problems: "accurate" pattern matchings, record concatenation, and first-class messages. Previously known solutions involved a different technique in each case: our theoretical contribution is in using only a single set of tools. On the practical side, this allows all three problems to benefit from a common set of constraint simplification techniques, a formal description of which is given in an appendix.