Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
6875396 Theoretical Computer Science 2018 16 Pages PDF
Abstract
Generalized algebraic datatypes (GADTs) are a hot topic in the functional programming community. Previously we showed that object-oriented languages such as C♯ and Java can express GADT declarations using Generics, but only some GADT programs. The addition of equational constraints on type parameters recovers expressivity. We now study this expressivity gap in more depth by extending an earlier translation from System F to C♯ to handle GADTs. Our efforts reveal some surprising limitations of Generics and provide further justification for equational constraints.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Computer Science Computational Theory and Mathematics
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