Generic control operators, such as fold, can be generated from algebraic type definitions. The class of types to which these techniques are applicable is generalized to all algebraic types definable in languages such as Miranda and ML, i.e. mutually recursive sums-of-products with tuples and function types. Several other useful generic operators, also applicable to every type in this class, also are described. A normalization algorithm which automatically calculates improvements to programs expressed in a language based upon folds is described. It reduces programs, expressed using fold as the exclusive control operator, to a canonical form. Based upon a generic promotion theorem, the algorithm is facilitated by the explicit structure of fold programs rather than using an analysis phase to search for implicit structure. Canonical programs are minimal in the sense that they contain the fewest number of fold operations. Because of this property, the normalization algorithm has important ...

We introduce a new abstraction mechanism, type parametric combinators, which supports abstraction over type constructors defined by datatype declarations found in functional languages such as Miranda, Haskell, and ML. This mechanism allows the definition and use of high level abstractions not possible in traditional languages and could be used to define user programmable derived instance declarations for type classes in Haskel. We illustrate its use in an actual programming language by giving examples in the ML dialect CRML.

This paper considers a programming language where all control is encoded in algebras