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To: caml-list@inria.fr
cc: sumii@saul.cis.upenn.edu
Subject: polymorphic equality and overloading
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Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 17:10:01 -0400
From: Eijiro Sumii <sumii@saul.cis.upenn.edu>
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Dear Caml Developers/Users,

(sorry that I don't know French)

This might be an FAQ, but could someone please give a rationale to the
polymorphic (in)equalities such as = and < in Caml?  While they have a
parametric polymorphic type 'a -> 'a -> bool, their semantics is ad
hoc rather than parametric with respect to the type 'a (for example,
they are undefined for functions), which I found confusing to some
users---at least, a friend of mine was confused, and chose Haskell
(which has type classes) over Caml!

// Eijiro Sumii <sumii@saul.cis.upenn.edu>
//
// currently visiting: Department of Computer and Information Science,
// School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania