Generics as a Library
Bruno C. d. S. Oliveira, Ralf Hinze, and Andres Loeh abstract
A generic function is a function that is defined on the structure of data types: with a single definition, we obtain a function that works for many data types. In contrast, an ad-hoc polymorphic function requires a separate implementation for each data type. Previous work by Hinze on lightweight generic programming has introduced techniques that allow the definition of generic functions directly in Haskell. A severe drawback of these approaches is that generic functions, once defined, cannot be extended with ad-hoc behaviour for new data types, precluding the design of an extensible and modular generic programming library based on these techniques. In this paper, we present a revised version of Hinze's Generics for the masses approach that overcomes this limitation. Using our new technique, writing an extensible and modular generic programming library in Haskell 98 is possible.
infobook title | Trends in Functional Programming (TFP 2006) |
editor | Henrik Nilsson |
location | University of Nottingham, UK |
month | April |
note | Draft Proceedings |
year | 2006 |
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