Lambda (was: Refactoring in Tunes)

[btanksley@hifn.com]

> From: Laurent Martelli [mailto:martelli@iie.cnam.fr]
> Subject: Re: Lambda (was: Refactoring in Tunes)

> >>>>> "billy" == btanksley  <btanksley@hifn.com> writes:

>   >> But couldn't it use type infering, à la Caml ?
>   billy> In order to use type annotations to produce error messages,
>   billy> type inference is _essential_.  The type annotations would
>   billy> simply allow the inference engine to produce error messages
>   billy> which are more appropriate to the problem.

> OK. So annotations should be what they are : annotations. That is,
> they should not be part of the program. They should be add-ons. Some
> sort of other program (an aspect program ?).

You could do that, but why?  The annotations are there to allow the compiler
to make your life easier, not dramatically harder.  It's hard enough to add
the annotations in the first place -- don't make it any harder.

Also, the type annotations are intrinsically a part of the function they're
annotating.  They have absolutely ZERO use outside of that function.

> Laurent Martelli

-Billy