Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Polytypic Programming in Haskell

  • Conference paper
Implementation of Functional Languages (IFL 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 3145))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

A polytypic (or generic) program captures a common pattern of computation over different datatypes by abstracting over the structure of the datatype. Examples of algorithms that can be defined polytypically are equality tests, mapping functions and pretty printers.

A commonly used technique to implement polytypic programming is specialization, where a specialized version of a polytypic function is generated for every datatype it is used at. In this paper we describe an alternative technique that allows polytypic functions to be defined using Haskell’s class system (extended with multi-parameter type classes and functional dependencies). This technique brings the power of polytypic programming inside Haskell allowing us to define a Haskell library of polytypic functions. It also increases our flexibility, reducing the dependency on a polytypic language compiler.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Alimarine, A., Plasmeijer, R.: A generic programming extension for Clean. In: Arts, T., Mohnen, M. (eds.) IFL 2002. LNCS, vol. 2312, pp. 168–185. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Clarke, D., Löh, A.: Generic haskell, specifically. In: Gibbons, J., Jeuring, J. (eds.) Proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Working Conference on Generic Programming, pp. 21–48. Kluwer, Dordrecht (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Cockett, R., Fukushima, T.: About Charity. Yellow Series Report No. 92/480/18, Dep. of Computer Science, Univ. of Calgary (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Furuse, J.: Generic polymorphism in ML. In: Journées Francophones des Langages Applicatifs (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Hinze, R., Jeuring, J.: Generic Haskell: practice and theory. In: Backhouse, R., Gibbons, J. (eds.) Generic Programming. LNCS, vol. 2793, pp. 1–56. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  6. Hinze, R., Peyton Jones, S.: Derivable type classes. In: Hutton, G. (ed.) Proceedings of the 2000 ACM SIGPLAN Haskell Workshop. Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 41.1, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Jansson, P.: The WWW home page for polytypic programming. (2003), Available from http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~patrikj/poly/

  8. Jansson, P., Jeuring, J.: PolyP — a polytypic programming language extension. In: POPL 1997, pp. 470–482. ACM Press, New York (1997)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  9. Jansson, P., Jeuring, J.: PolyLib – a polytypic function library. Workshop on Generic Programming, Marstrand, Available from the Polytypic programming WWW, page [7] (June 1998)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Jay, C., Steckler, P.: The functional imperative: shape! In: Hankin, C. (ed.) ESOP 1998. LNCS, vol. 1381, pp. 139–153. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  11. Lämmel, R., Peyton Jones, S.: Scrap your boilerplate: a practical design pattern for generic programming. SIGPLAN Not 38(3), 26–37 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Lämmel, R., Visser, J.: Typed Combinators for Generic Traversal. In: Krishnamurthi, S., Ramakrishnan, C.R. (eds.) PADL 2002. LNCS, vol. 2257, pp. 137–154. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Lämmel, R., Visser, J.: Typed Combinators for Generic Traversal. In: Krishnamurthi, S., Ramakrishnan, C.R. (eds.) PADL 2002. LNCS, vol. 2257, pp. 137–154. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. Norell, U.: Functional generic programming and type theory. Master’s thesis, Computing Science, Chalmers University of Technology (2002), Available from http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~ulfn

  15. Sheard, T.: Generic unification via Two-Level types and parameterized modules. In: ICFP 2001, pp. 86–97 (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Sheard, T., Jones, S.P.: Template meta-programming for Haskell. In: Proceedings of the Haskell workshop, pp. 1–16. ACM Press, New York (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computing Science, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

    Ulf Norell & Patrik Jansson

Authors
  1. Ulf Norell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Patrik Jansson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Mathematics and Comp. Sci., Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK

    Phil Trinder

  2. Dept. of Mathematics and Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland

    Greg J. Michaelson

  3. Departamento Sistemas Informaticos y Programacin, Facultad de Informatica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, C/ Juan del Rosal, 8, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Peña

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Norell, U., Jansson, P. (2004). Polytypic Programming in Haskell. In: Trinder, P., Michaelson, G.J., Peña, R. (eds) Implementation of Functional Languages. IFL 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3145. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27861-0_11

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-27861-0_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-23727-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-27861-0

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation