To: seminaire-gallium-moscova@inria.fr
From: Francois.Pottier@inria.fr
Subject: SEM - INRIA : Gallium - 15/06/07 - Paris - FR

           Vous pouvez vous abonner à nos annonces de séminaires
                    http://pauillac.inria.fr/seminaires/

                             S E M I N A I R E
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     /   ) __) /  /  / /  / /\/|    -----    / |/ |  /  )(_  /  /  ) ) ) __)
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                          I N R I A - Rocquencourt
                         Amphi Turing du bâtiment 1

                          Vendredi 15 juin, 10h30

                                ------------
                                Keiko Nakata
                                ------------

                         Kyoto University and INRIA

  =======================================================================
  Exploring a type system for recursive modules with applicative functors
  =======================================================================

The ML module system supports the modular development of large programs. A
programmer can factor programs into hierarchy using nested structures and can
define functors, which are functions over modules, to reuse program codes.
Moreover, signatures, which represent types of modules, allow the programmer
to control abstraction of modules.  In spite of this flexibility, modules
cannot be defined recursively in ML, since dependencies between modules must
accord with the order of definitions. A complex program may be naturally
decomposed into recursive modules. Yet, this constraint of ML will force the
programmer to consolidate conceptually separate components into a single
module, intruding on modular programming.

Introducing recursive modules is a natural way out of this predicament. In
this talk, I will propose a type system for a ML-like module system with
recursive modules and applicative functos. Most of existing work on recursive
modules focuses on generative functors. While applicative functors provide
more flexibility in expressing type sharing constraint between modules, they
also require design consideration that does not appear in the case of
generative functors. I will explore these problems and present our choices.