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The Computer Journal 2002 45(4):436-452; doi:10.1093/comjnl/45.4.436
© 2002 by British Computer Society
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Explaining Polymorphic Types

Yang Jun1, Greg Michaelson1,2 and Phil Trinder1

1 Department of Computing and Electrical Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton EH14 4AS, UK Email: ceejy1@cee.hw.ac.uk 2 Corresponding author.

Polymorphic types in programming languages facilitate code reuse, increase reliability and reduce semantic errors in programs. Hindley–Milner type inference forms a strong basis for checking polymorphic types but is less well suited to explaining them, as it introduces intermediate constructs that relate poorly to a programmer's understanding of the program. We report an experiment into expert human type explanation and uncover a simple set of rules for human-like explanations. We present a type explanation system based on these rules rather than Hindley–Milner inference. The system uses a new $H$ inference algorithm to annotate types with explanations and is designed to produce succinct, non-repetitive explanations with minimal reference to artefacts of mechanized type inference.


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