Dear all,
One way to use first-class module is to "extend" a functor without resorting to a new functor. Like, for instance:
type ('a,'t) set = (module Set.S with type elt = 'a and type t = 't)
let add2 (type a) (type t) (m:(a,t) set) x y s =
let module S = (val m:Set.S with type elt = a and type t = t) in
S.add x (S.add y s);;
But if that works pretty with Set, it won't work with Map for two reasons. One is that syntax won't allow us to write something like
with 'a t = …
in the type constraints. Another, probably more serious, is that there is no equivalent to (type t), for type families ( (type 'a t) ?).
Now that would be a pretty useful thing to do, in some case. Hence I have a twofold question:
- On the practical side, does anyone knows a workaround ? Could I find a way to extend Map without a functor if I'm tricky?
- On the theoretical side, how hard is it to design a variant of Hindley-Milner's typing algorithm with type-family quantification? (I understand that Ocaml's typing machinery is pretty hard to change, and that it will most likely not be happening any time soon in practice)
--
Arnaud Spiwack