From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id MAA09188; Mon, 6 Aug 2001 12:02:18 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id MAA09223 for ; Mon, 6 Aug 2001 12:02:17 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from tcs.inf.tu-dresden.de (tcs.inf.tu-dresden.de [141.76.75.101]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.10.0) with ESMTP id f76A2GD04836 for ; Mon, 6 Aug 2001 12:02:16 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from ithif51 (ithif51 [141.76.75.51]) by tcs.inf.tu-dresden.de (8.12.0.Beta7/8.12.0.Beta7) with ESMTP id f76A2FeH000398 for ; Mon, 6 Aug 2001 12:02:16 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from tews by ithif51 with local (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 15ThDD-0005cG-00 for ; Mon, 06 Aug 2001 12:02:15 +0200 From: Hendrik Tews MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <15214.27431.174543.115555@gargle.gargle.HOWL> Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2001 12:02:15 +0200 (CEST) To: Caml-list Subject: empty type (was [Caml-list] Please help a newbie) In-Reply-To: <3B6DBC9A.1E6B82A2@maxtal.com.au> References: <3B6DBC9A.1E6B82A2@maxtal.com.au> X-Mailer: VM 6.75 under Emacs 20.7.2 Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk In Ocaml, the categorical initial also exists, thanks to polymorphic variants: type void = [] It is my contention that the type of procedures is wrong in ocaml precisely because they return unit, when they _should_ be returning void (that is, nothing). So what typing rules do you use for the empty type? Usually a type theory is inconsistent as soon as one has an inhabitant of the empty type. Bye, Hendrik ------------------- Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr