Re: is there a FAQ?

[fjh@cs.mu.oz.au (Fergus Henderson)]

robertduff@world.std.com (Robert A Duff) writes:

>Brian Rogoff  <bpr@shell5.ba.best.com> wrote:
>>Actually, ML is quite strongly typed, and does mapping just as concisely
>>as Common Lisp. The distinction is that ML is not *explicitly* typed, like 
>>Ada; the most general type is inferred and so you don't have to spell
>>everything out, or instantiate generic functions. Lots of "researchy"
>>languages do this. 
>
>Type inference seems like a nice thing locally, within a single
>subroutine, but it seems to me that the interface (to a subroutine, or
>package, &c) should be written out explicitly.

Yes, I agree.  We came to a similar design decision in the design of
Mercury.  Mercury supports type inference for local variables and for
local procedures but requires that types for procedures exported from a
module be declared explicitly.

--
Fergus Henderson <fjh@cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
PGP: finger fjh@128.250.37.3        |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.