Paper: Type inference for record concatenation and multiple inheritance (at LICS 1989)

Authors: Mitchell Wand

Abstract

The author shows that the type inference problem for a lambda calculus with records, including a record concatenation operator, is decidable. He shows that this calculus does not have principal types but does have finite complete sets of type, that is, for any term M in the calculus, there exists an effectively generable finite set of type schemes such that every typing for M is an instance of one of the schemes in the set. The author shows how a simple model of object-oriented programming, including hidden instance variables and multiple inheritance, may be coded in this calculus. The author concludes that type inference is decidable for object-oriented programs, even with multiple inheritance and classes as first-class values

BibTeX

  @InProceedings{Wand-Typeinferenceforrec,
    author = 	 {Mitchell Wand},
    title = 	 {Type inference for record concatenation and multiple inheritance },
    booktitle =  {Proceedings of the Fourth Annual IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science (LICS 1989)},
    year =	 {1989},
    month =	 {June}, 
    pages =      {92--97},
    location =   {Pacific Grove, CA, USA}, 
    publisher =	 {IEEE Computer Society Press}
  }