Re: [Caml-list] Polymorphic Variants

["Seth J. Fogarty" <sfogarty@gmail.com>]

On 1/16/07, Tom <tom.primozic@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 16/01/07, Seth J. Fogarty <sfogarty@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 2) When I have different overlapping kinds of data, with a common root
> > and common parent, and functions that are only defined on certain
> > branches of the 'type tree.' This would be the hardest to replicate.
> >
>
> Could this be replicated by either
> using overloaded non-polymorphic variants, meaning that say Int of int can
> be shared by many types (almost like polymorphic variants, just that it is
> declared, and thus (at least I believe so) more typesafe)

Are you going to allow translation between these? Rho-variable
polymorphism is 'The Right Thing To Do' in this case with minimal type
annotation.

> using records with overloaded fields and subtyping, so that you could have:
> type top = {common of string}
> type one_level_deep = {top | my_only of int}
>
> type independent = {my_only of string}
> so this would be possible:
> let to_str x -> x.common
>
> to_str {common = "first"}; to_str {common = "second"; my_only = 0}
> ?

OCaml does not, as far as I know, have any structural typing for
records.. and I am not sure this would be at all cleaner. It might
WORK, but it would be just as ugly, if not uglier.


-- 
Seth Fogarty             sfogarty@[gmail.com|rice.edu|livejournal]
Neep-neep at large    AIM: Sorrath
"Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from
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