Book Details

Datatype-Generic Programming

Publication year: 2007

ISBN: 978-3-540-76786-2

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A leitmotif in the evolution of programming paradigms has been the level and extent of parametrisation that is facilitated — the so-called genericity of the paradigm. The sorts of parameters that can be envisaged in a programming language range from simple values, like integers and fioating-point numbers, through structured values, types and classes, to kinds (the type of types and/or classes).Datatype-generic programming is about parametrising programsby the structure of the data that they manipulate. To appreciate the importance of data type genericity,one need look no further than the internet. The internet is a massive repository of structured data, but the structure is rarely exploited. For example, compression of data can be much more efiective if its structure is known, but most compression algorithms regard the input data as simply a string of bits, and take no account of its internal organisation. Datatype-generic programming is about exploiting the structure of data when it is relevant and ignoring it when it is not. Programming languages most c- monly used at the present time do not provide efiective mechanisms for do- menting and implementing datatype genericity.


Subject: Computer Science, Spring Framework, applicative programming, category theory, componnets, datatype genericity, functional programming, functional programming tools, generic haskell programming, generic programming, genericity, haskell programming, parametric polymorphism, program parameteri, programming, types, data structures