Standard ML does not support ad hoc polymorphism. This presents a challenge to programmers. The problem is that at first glance there seems to be no practical way to implement something like a function for converting a value of any type to a string or a function for computing a hash value for a value of any type. Fortunately there are ways to implement type-indexed values in SML as discussed in Yang98. Various articles such as Danvy98, Ramsey11, Elsman04, Kennedy04, and Benton05 also contain examples of type-indexed values.
NOTE: The technique used in the following example uses an early (and
somewhat broken) variation of the basic technique used in an
experimental generic programming library (see
README) that can
be found from the MLton repository. The generic programming library
also includes a more advanced generic pretty printing function (see
pretty.sig).
Example: Converting any SML value to (roughly) SML syntax
Consider the problem of converting any SML value to a textual
presentation that matches the syntax of SML as closely as possible.
One solution is a type-indexed function that maps a given type to a
function that maps any value (of the type) to its textual
presentation. A type-indexed function like this can be useful for a
variety of purposes. For example, one could use it to show debugging
information. We’ll call this function show.
We’ll do a fairly complete implementation of show. We do not
distinguish infix and nonfix constructors, but that is not an
intrinsic property of SML datatypes. We also don’t reconstruct a type
name for the value, although it would be particularly useful for
functional values. To reconstruct type names, some changes would be
needed and the reader is encouraged to consider how to do that. A
more realistic implementation would use some pretty printing
combinators to compute a layout for the result. This should be a
relatively easy change (given a suitable pretty printing library).
Cyclic values (through references and arrays) do not have a standard
textual presentation and it is impossible to convert arbitrary
functional values (within SML) to a meaningful textual presentation.
Finally, it would also make sense to show sharing of references and
arrays. We’ll leave these improvements to an actual library
implementation.
The following code uses the fixpoint framework and other
utilities from an Extended Basis library (see
README).
Signature
Let’s consider the design of the SHOW signature:
infixr -->
signature SHOW = sig
type 'a t (* complete type-index *)
type 'a s (* incomplete sum *)
type ('a, 'k) p (* incomplete product *)
type u (* tuple or unlabelled product *)
type l (* record or labelled product *)
val show : 'a t -> 'a -> string
(* user-defined types *)
val inj : ('a -> 'b) -> 'b t -> 'a t
(* tuples and records *)
val * : ('a, 'k) p * ('b, 'k) p -> (('a, 'b) product, 'k) p
val U : 'a t -> ('a, u) p
val L : string -> 'a t -> ('a, l) p
val tuple : ('a, u) p -> 'a t
val record : ('a, l) p -> 'a t
(* datatypes *)
val + : 'a s * 'b s -> (('a, 'b) sum) s
val C0 : string -> unit s
val C1 : string -> 'a t -> 'a s
val data : 'a s -> 'a t
val Y : 'a t Tie.t
(* exceptions *)
val exn : exn t
val regExn : (exn -> ('a * 'a s) option) -> unit
(* some built-in type constructors *)
val refc : 'a t -> 'a ref t
val array : 'a t -> 'a array t
val list : 'a t -> 'a list t
val vector : 'a t -> 'a vector t
val --> : 'a t * 'b t -> ('a -> 'b) t
(* some built-in base types *)
val string : string t
val unit : unit t
val bool : bool t
val char : char t
val int : int t
val word : word t
val real : real t
endWhile some details are shaped by the specific requirements of show,
there are a number of (design) patterns that translate to other
type-indexed values. The former kind of details are mostly shaped by
the syntax of SML values that show is designed to produce. To this
end, abstract types and phantom types are used to distinguish
incomplete record, tuple, and datatype type-indices from each other
and from complete type-indices. Also, names of record labels and
datatype constructors need to be provided by the user.
Arbitrary user-defined datatypes
Perhaps the most important pattern is how the design supports arbitrary user-defined datatypes. A number of combinators together conspire to provide the functionality. First of all, to support new user-defined types, a combinator taking a conversion function to a previously supported type is provided:
val inj : ('a -> 'b) -> 'b t -> 'a tAn injection function is sufficient in this case, but in the general case, an embedding with injection and projection functions may be needed.
To support products (tuples and records) a product combinator is provided:
val * : ('a, 'k) p * ('b, 'k) p -> (('a, 'b) product, 'k) pThe second (phantom) type variable 'k is there to distinguish
between labelled and unlabelled products and the type p
distinguishes incomplete products from complete type-indices of type
t. Most type-indexed values do not need to make such distinctions.
To support sums (datatypes) a sum combinator is provided:
val + : 'a s * 'b s -> (('a, 'b) sum) sAgain, the purpose of the type s is to distinguish incomplete sums
from complete type-indices of type t, which usually isn’t necessary.
Finally, to support recursive datatypes, including sets of mutually recursive datatypes, a fixpoint tier is provided:
val Y : 'a t Tie.tTogether these combinators (with the more domain specific combinators
U, L, tuple, record, C0, C1, and data) enable one to
encode a type-index for any user-defined datatype.
Exceptions
The exn type in SML is a universal type into which
all types can be embedded. SML also allows a program to generate new
exception variants at run-time. Thus a mechanism is required to register
handlers for particular variants:
val exn : exn t
val regExn : (exn -> ('a * 'a s) option) -> unitThe universal exn type-index then makes use of the registered
handlers. The above particular form of handler, which converts an
exception value to a value of some type and a type-index for that type
(essentially an existential type) is designed to make it convenient to
write handlers. To write a handler, one can conveniently reuse
existing type-indices:
exception Int of int
local
open Show
in
val () = regExn (fn Int v => SOME (v, C1"Int" int)
| _ => NONE)
endNote that a single handler may actually handle an arbitrary number of different exceptions.
Other types
Some built-in and standard types typically require special treatment due to their special nature. The most important of these are arrays and references, because cyclic data (ignoring closures) and observable sharing can only be constructed through them.
When arrow types are really supported, unlike in this case, they usually need special treatment due to the contravariance of arguments.
Lists and vectors require special treatment in the case of show,
because of their special syntax. This isn’t usually the case.
The set of base types to support also needs to be considered unless one exports an interface for constructing type-indices for entirely new base types.
Usage
Before going to the implementation, let’s look at some examples. For
the following examples, we’ll assume a structure binding
Show :> SHOW. If you want to try the examples immediately, just
skip forward to the implementation.
To use show, one first needs a type-index, which is then given to
show. To show a list of integers, one would use the type-index
list int, which has the type int list Show.t:
val "[3, 1, 4]" =
let open Show in show (list int) end
[3, 1, 4]Likewise, to show a list of lists of characters, one would use the
type-index list (list char), which has the type char list list
Show.t:
val "[[#\"a\", #\"b\", #\"c\"], []]" =
let open Show in show (list (list char)) end
[[#"a", #"b", #"c"], []]Handling standard types is not particularly interesting. It is more
interesting to see how user-defined types can be handled. Although
the option datatype is a standard type, it requires no special
support, so we can treat it as a user-defined type. Options can be
encoded easily using a sum:
fun option t = let
open Show
in
inj (fn NONE => INL ()
| SOME v => INR v)
(data (C0"NONE" + C1"SOME" t))
end
val "SOME 5" =
let open Show in show (option int) end
(SOME 5)Readers new to type-indexed values might want to type annotate each subexpression of the above example as an exercise. (Use a compiler to check your annotations.)
Using a product, user specified records can be also be encoded easily:
val abc = let
open Show
in
inj (fn {a, b, c} => a & b & c)
(record (L"a" (option int) *
L"b" real *
L"c" bool))
end
val "{a = SOME 1, b = 3.0, c = false}"
let open Show in show abc end
{a = SOME 1, b = 3.0, c = false}As you can see, both of the above use inj to inject user-defined
types to the general purpose sum and product types.
Of particular interest is whether recursive datatypes and cyclic data can be handled. For example, how does one write a type-index for a recursive datatype such as a cyclic graph?
datatype 'a graph = VTX of 'a * 'a graph list ref
fun arcs (VTX (_, r)) = rUsing the Show combinators, we could first write a new type-index
combinator for graph:
fun graph a = let
open Tie Show
in
fix Y (fn graph_a =>
inj (fn VTX (x, y) => x & y)
(data (C1"VTX"
(tuple (U a *
U (refc (list graph_a)))))))
endTo show a graph with integer labels
val a_graph = let
val a = VTX (1, ref [])
val b = VTX (2, ref [])
val c = VTX (3, ref [])
val d = VTX (4, ref [])
val e = VTX (5, ref [])
val f = VTX (6, ref [])
in
arcs a := [b, d]
; arcs b := [c, e]
; arcs c := [a, f]
; arcs d := [f]
; arcs e := [d]
; arcs f := [e]
; a
endwe could then simply write
val "VTX (1, ref [VTX (2, ref [VTX (3, ref [VTX (1, %0), \
\VTX (6, ref [VTX (5, ref [VTX (4, ref [VTX (6, %3)])])] as %3)]), \
\VTX (5, ref [VTX (4, ref [VTX (6, ref [VTX (5, %2)])])] as %2)]), \
\VTX (4, ref [VTX (6, ref [VTX (5, ref [VTX (4, %1)])])] as %1)] as %0)" =
let open Show in show (graph int) end
a_graphThere is a subtle gotcha with cyclic data. Consider the following code:
exception ExnArray of exn array
val () = let
open Show
in
regExn (fn ExnArray a =>
SOME (a, C1"ExnArray" (array exn))
| _ => NONE)
end
val a_cycle = let
val a = Array.fromList [Empty]
in
Array.update (a, 0, ExnArray a) ; a
endAlthough the above looks innocent enough, the evaluation of
val "[|ExnArray %0|] as %0" =
let open Show in show (array exn) end
a_cyclegoes into an infinite loop. To avoid this problem, the type-index
array exn must be evaluated only once, as in the following:
val array_exn = let open Show in array exn end
exception ExnArray of exn array
val () = let
open Show
in
regExn (fn ExnArray a =>
SOME (a, C1"ExnArray" array_exn)
| _ => NONE)
end
val a_cycle = let
val a = Array.fromList [Empty]
in
Array.update (a, 0, ExnArray a) ; a
end
val "[|ExnArray %0|] as %0" =
let open Show in show array_exn end
a_cycleCyclic data (excluding closures) in Standard ML can only be
constructed imperatively through arrays and references (combined with
exceptions or recursive datatypes). Before recursing to a reference
or an array, one needs to check whether that reference or array has
already been seen before. When ref or array is called with a
type-index, a new cyclicity checker is instantiated.
Implementation
structure SmlSyntax = struct
local
structure CV = CharVector and C = Char
in
val isSym = Char.contains "!%&$#+-/:<=>?@\\~`^|*"
fun isSymId s = 0 < size s andalso CV.all isSym s
fun isAlphaNumId s =
0 < size s
andalso C.isAlpha (CV.sub (s, 0))
andalso CV.all (fn c => C.isAlphaNum c
orelse #"'" = c
orelse #"_" = c) s
fun isNumLabel s =
0 < size s
andalso #"0" <> CV.sub (s, 0)
andalso CV.all C.isDigit s
fun isId s = isAlphaNumId s orelse isSymId s
fun isLongId s = List.all isId (String.fields (#"." <\ op =) s)
fun isLabel s = isId s orelse isNumLabel s
end
end
structure Show :> SHOW = struct
datatype 'a t = IN of exn list * 'a -> bool * string
type 'a s = 'a t
type ('a, 'k) p = 'a t
type u = unit
type l = unit
fun show (IN t) x = #2 (t ([], x))
(* user-defined types *)
fun inj inj (IN b) = IN (b o Pair.map (id, inj))
local
fun surround pre suf (_, s) = (false, concat [pre, s, suf])
fun parenthesize x = if #1 x then surround "(" ")" x else x
fun construct tag =
(fn (_, s) => (true, concat [tag, " ", s])) o parenthesize
fun check p m s = if p s then () else raise Fail (m^s)
in
(* tuples and records *)
fun (IN l) * (IN r) =
IN (fn (rs, a & b) =>
(false, concat [#2 (l (rs, a)),
", ",
#2 (r (rs, b))]))
val U = id
fun L l = (check SmlSyntax.isLabel "Invalid label: " l
; fn IN t => IN (surround (l^" = ") "" o t))
fun tuple (IN t) = IN (surround "(" ")" o t)
fun record (IN t) = IN (surround "{" "}" o t)
(* datatypes *)
fun (IN l) + (IN r) = IN (fn (rs, INL a) => l (rs, a)
| (rs, INR b) => r (rs, b))
fun C0 c = (check SmlSyntax.isId "Invalid constructor: " c
; IN (const (false, c)))
fun C1 c (IN t) = (check SmlSyntax.isId "Invalid constructor: " c
; IN (construct c o t))
val data = id
fun Y ? = Tie.iso Tie.function (fn IN x => x, IN) ?
(* exceptions *)
local
val handlers = ref ([] : (exn -> unit t option) list)
in
val exn = IN (fn (rs, e) => let
fun lp [] =
C0(concat ["<exn:",
General.exnName e,
">"])
| lp (f::fs) =
case f e
of NONE => lp fs
| SOME t => t
val IN f = lp (!handlers)
in
f (rs, ())
end)
fun regExn f =
handlers := (Option.map
(fn (x, IN f) =>
IN (fn (rs, ()) =>
f (rs, x))) o f)
:: !handlers
end
(* some built-in type constructors *)
local
fun cyclic (IN t) = let
exception E of ''a * bool ref
in
IN (fn (rs, v : ''a) => let
val idx = Int.toString o length
fun lp (E (v', c)::rs) =
if v' <> v then lp rs
else (c := false ; (false, "%"^idx rs))
| lp (_::rs) = lp rs
| lp [] = let
val c = ref true
val r = t (E (v, c)::rs, v)
in
if !c then r
else surround "" (" as %"^idx rs) r
end
in
lp rs
end)
end
fun aggregate pre suf toList (IN t) =
IN (surround pre suf o
(fn (rs, a) =>
(false,
String.concatWith
", "
(map (#2 o curry t rs)
(toList a)))))
in
fun refc ? = (cyclic o inj ! o C1"ref") ?
fun array ? = (cyclic o aggregate "[|" "|]" (Array.foldr op:: [])) ?
fun list ? = aggregate "[" "]" id ?
fun vector ? = aggregate "#[" "]" (Vector.foldr op:: []) ?
end
fun (IN _) --> (IN _) = IN (const (false, "<fn>"))
(* some built-in base types *)
local
fun mk toS = (fn x => (false, x)) o toS o (fn (_, x) => x)
in
val string =
IN (surround "\"" "\"" o mk (String.translate Char.toString))
val unit = IN (mk (fn () => "()"))
val bool = IN (mk Bool.toString)
val char = IN (surround "#\"" "\"" o mk Char.toString)
val int = IN (mk Int.toString)
val word = IN (surround "0wx" "" o mk Word.toString)
val real = IN (mk Real.toString)
end
end
end
(* Handlers for standard top-level exceptions *)
val () = let
open Show
fun E0 name = SOME ((), C0 name)
in
regExn (fn Bind => E0"Bind"
| Chr => E0"Chr"
| Div => E0"Div"
| Domain => E0"Domain"
| Empty => E0"Empty"
| Match => E0"Match"
| Option => E0"Option"
| Overflow => E0"Overflow"
| Size => E0"Size"
| Span => E0"Span"
| Subscript => E0"Subscript"
| _ => NONE)
; regExn (fn Fail s => SOME (s, C1"Fail" string)
| _ => NONE)
end