From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from weis@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id SAA00125 for caml-redistribution; Thu, 21 Jan 1999 18:45:21 +0100 (MET) Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id QAA23768 for ; Thu, 21 Jan 1999 16:46:05 +0100 (MET) Received: from macon.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (macon.Informatik.Uni-Tuebingen.De [134.2.12.17]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id QAA01526 for ; Thu, 21 Jan 1999 16:46:03 +0100 (MET) Received: from modas.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (modas.Informatik.Uni-Tuebingen.De [134.2.12.3]) by macon.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (8.9.1/8.9.1) with SMTP id QAA15274; Thu, 21 Jan 1999 16:46:03 +0100 Received: from localhost by modas.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de (AIX 4.1/UCB 5.64/4.03) id AA23396; Thu, 21 Jan 1999 16:45:53 +0100 Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 16:45:53 +0100 (MET) From: Simon Helsen X-Sender: helsen@modas To: Toby Moth Cc: caml-list@inria.fr Subject: Re: monomorphism is ... ? In-Reply-To: <199901211150.LAA06705@squall.cise.npl.co.uk> Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: weis >Am I right in thinking that the following holds ? > >polymorphic = has type 'a = for all >monomorphic = has type '_a = exists not in the type-theoretic sense of the word. Exists normally refers to data abstraction, whereas the '_a here is a "hack" of the ocaml interactive environment. As soon as it gets a type, you cannot "re"-instantiate it. SML doesn't have the '_a at all and returns a dummy type-variable. I think (but I am not sure about this) that the batch compiler doesn't deal with '_a at all. cheers, Simon