A theory of type polymorphism in programming (1978) [808 citations — 0 self]
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author = {Robin Milner},
title = {A theory of type polymorphism in programming},
journal = {Journal of Computer and System Sciences},
year = {1978},
volume = {17},
pages = {348--375}
}
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Abstract:
The aim of this work is largely a practical one. A widely employed style of programming, particularly in structure-processing languages which impose no discipline of types, entails defining procedures which work well on objects of a wide variety. We present a formal type discipline for such polymorphic procedures in the context of a simple pro-gramming language, and a compile time type-checking algorithm w which enforces the discipline. A Semantic Soundness Theorem (based on a formal semantics for the language) states that well-type programs cannot “go wrong ” and a Syntactic Soundness Theorem states that if fl accepts a program then it is well typed. We also discuss extending these results to richer languages; a type-checking algorithm based on w is in fact already implemented and working, for the metalanguage ML in the Edinburgh LCF system, 1.
