Re: [Caml-list] Re: References and polymorphism

[Romain Bardou <bardou@lsv.ens-cachan.fr>]

Le 12/01/2012 11:05, Andrej Bauer a écrit :
> I would just like to remind the participants of this discussion that
> the value restriction historically originated as a _simplifaction_ of
> fancier and more capable forms of parametric polymorphism. The older,
> more capable kinds of ML polymorphism grew increasingly more complex,
> until Andrew Wright actually looked at what sort of programs people
> wrote and noticed that for the most part the fancy stuff was not
> needed. Thus it was decided that the ML polymorphism be _simplified_.
> This was a good decision, as it made types easier to understand and
> easier to implement, at a miniscule cost.
>
> That is, we know that value restriction can be "improved", but by
> trying to do so you are just repeating the mistakes that were alerady
> made in the 90's.
>
> With kind regards,
>
> Andrej
>

Some even argue, using the same kind of arguments, that (local) let 
should not be generalized [1]. Here we are not talking about local 
values though.

[1] Dimitrios Vytiniotis, Simon Peyton Jones and Tom Schrijvers, Let 
Should Not Be Generalised

-- 
Romain Bardou