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* RE: [Caml-list] Why type infenere enter infinte loop here?
@ 2004-07-06 23:41 Kevin S. Millikin
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 2+ messages in thread
From: Kevin S. Millikin @ 2004-07-06 23:41 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: 'Andy Yang', caml-list

On Tuesday, July 06, 2004 5:25 PM, Andy Yang [SMTP:yyu08@yahoo.com] wrote:
> Hi, all
>
> I am relatively new in Ocaml. Perhaps this problem is
> trivial. With the following interactive process, ocaml
> cannot give out f2's type. Could you tell me why it
> cannot?
>
>
> # let rec y f = f (fun x ->(y f) x);;
> val y : (('a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b = <fun>
> # let g h x = h x;;
> val g : ('a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b = <fun>
> # let f1 = y g;;
> val f1 : '_a -> 'b = <fun>
> # let k x = x * x + 1;;
> val k : int -> int = <fun>
> # let f2 = f1 k;;
>

For the same reason that it does not print the type of

# while true do () done;;

y is a fixpoint combinator.  g is the application combinator (Curry's B 
combinator).  f1 is the fixpoint of application, which does not 
terminating.  Your definition of f1 is the same as

# let f1 = y (fun h x -> h x);;

which is the same as

# let rec f1 = fun x -> f1 x;;

An application of f1 will not terminate.  The typechecker is perfectly h  
appy to determine that your f2 has type 'a -> 'b, but it won't print that 
type until it finishes computing the value.

-- Kevin

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 2+ messages in thread
* Re: [Caml-list] Y combinator and type-checking
@ 2004-07-02 17:54 Brian Hurt
  2004-07-06 23:24 ` [Caml-list] Why type infenere enter infinte loop here? Andy Yang
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 2+ messages in thread
From: Brian Hurt @ 2004-07-02 17:54 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Martin Berger; +Cc: The Caml Trade

On Fri, 2 Jul 2004, Martin Berger wrote:

> now i annotate the definition above with the types just
> inferred:
> 
>      let rec y  ( f : ( 'a -> 'b ) -> 'a -> 'b )
>             : ( ( 'a -> 'b ) -> 'a -> 'b ) -> 'a -> 'b
>        = f (fun x -> (y f) x );;

This is where your mistake is.  Don't duplicate the type of f.  Instead, 
you should have done:

let rec y (f : ('a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b) : 'a -> 'b = f (fun x -> (y f) x);;

And now it works:
$ ocaml
        Objective Caml version 3.07
 
# let rec y (f : ('a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b) : 'a -> 'b = f (fun x -> (y f) 
x);;
val y : (('a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b) -> 'a -> 'b = <fun>
#

-- 
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of
mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it."
                                - Gene Spafford 
Brian

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 2+ messages in thread

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2004-07-06 23:41 [Caml-list] Why type infenere enter infinte loop here? Kevin S. Millikin
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2004-07-02 17:54 [Caml-list] Y combinator and type-checking Brian Hurt
2004-07-06 23:24 ` [Caml-list] Why type infenere enter infinte loop here? Andy Yang

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