Abstract

A program derivation is said to be polytypic if some of its parameters are data types. Polytypic program derivations necessitate a general, non-inductive definition of `data type'. Here we propose such a definition: a data type is a relator that has membership. It is shown how this definition implies various other properties that are shared by all data types. In particular, all data types have a unique strength, and all natural transformations between data types are strong. 1 Introduction What is a data type? It is easy to list a number of examples: pairs, lists, bags, finite sets, possibly infinite sets, function spaces . . . but such a list of examples hardly makes a definition. The obvious formalisation is a definition that builds up the class of data types inductively; such an inductive definition, however, leads to cumbersome proofs if we want to prove a property of all data types. Here we aim to give a non-inductive characterisation, defining a data type as a mathematical object...

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