[Caml-list] Polymorphic Variant Error message (CVS version)

[skaller <skaller@users.sourceforge.net>]

Consider:
--------------------------------------
# type t = [`A of t]
  let rec f (x:t) = match x with
  | `A y -> f y
  | `B y -> f y
;; 

Warning: this pattern-matching is not exhaustive.
Here is an example of a value that is not matched:
`AnyExtraTag
Warning: this match case is unused.
type t = [ `A of t ]
val f : t -> 'a = <fun>
------------------------------------------
The first error message is a bit confusing.
There is indeed an extra tag `B in the match.

I think this kind of message only occurs where there
is a covariant type.

The confusion is: it says the pattern matching
is not exhaustive, but from the developers viewpoint
the opposite is true: the match is overconstrained,
rather than underconstrained. I guess the problem arises
becase the type of x is deduced from the match first,
before the annotation restricts it to type t.

Anyhow just curious exactly how this error arises.

--
John Skaller, mailto:skaller@users.sf.net
voice: 061-2-9660-0850, 
snail: PO BOX 401 Glebe NSW 2037 Australia
Checkout the Felix programming language http://felix.sf.net



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