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A pattern for almost compositional functions

Part of: JFP Research Articles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2008

BJÖRN BRINGERT  and
AARNE RANTA
BJÖRN BRINGERT
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology and University of GothenburgSE-412 96, Göteborg, Sweden (e-mail: bringert@chalmers.se, aarne@chalmers.se)
AARNE RANTA
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology and University of GothenburgSE-412 96, Göteborg, Sweden (e-mail: bringert@chalmers.se, aarne@chalmers.se)
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Abstract

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This paper introduces a pattern for almost compositional functions over recursive data types, and over families of mutually recursive data types. Here “almost compositional” means that for all of the constructors in the type(s), except a limited number of them, the result of the function depends only on the constructor and the results of calling the function on the constructor's arguments. The pattern consists of a generic part constructed once for each data type or family of data types, and a task-specific part. The generic part contains the code for the predictable compositional cases, leaving the interesting work to the task-specific part. Examples of the pattern are given, implemented in dependent type theory with inductive families, in Haskell with generalized algebraic data types and rank-2 polymorphism, and in Java using a variant of the Visitor design pattern. The relationships to the “Scrap Your Boilerplate” approach to generic programming, and to general tree types in dependent type theory, are investigated by reimplementing our operations using those frameworks.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Functional Programming , Volume 18 , Special Double Issue 5-6 , September 2008 , pp. 567 - 598
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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