Retrieving reusable software components by polymorphic type

Abstract

Abstract Polymorphic types are labels classifying both ( a ) defined components in a library and ( b ) contexts of free variables in partially written programs. It is proposed to help programmers make better use of software libraries by providing a system that, given ( b ), identifies candidates from ( a ) with matching types. Assuming at first that matching means unifying (i.e. having a common instance), efficient ways of implementing such a retrieval system are discussed and its likely effectiveness based on a quantitative study of currently available libraries is indicated. The applicative instance relation between types, which captures some intuitions about generalization/specialization is then introduced, and its use as the basis of a more flexible system is discussed.