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The Zip Calculus

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Book cover Mathematics of Program Construction (MPC 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1837))

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Abstract

Many have recognized the need for genericity in programming and program transformation. Genericity over data types has been achieved with polymorphism. Genericity over type constructors, often called polytypism, is an area of active research. This paper proposes that another kind of genericity is needed: genericity over the length of tuples. Untyped languages allow for such genericity but typed languages do not (except for languages allowing dependent types). The contribution of this paper is to present the “zip calculus,” a typed lambda calculus that provides genericity over the length of tuples and yet does not require the full generality of dependent types.

This research was supported in part by NSF under Grant Number CCR-9706747.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520-8285

    Mark Tullsen

Authors
  1. Mark Tullsen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, NG8 1BB, Nottingham, England

    Roland Backhouse

  2. Dep. Informática, Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, P.O. Box, 4700-320, Braga, Portugal

    José Nuno Oliveira

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© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Tullsen, M. (2000). The Zip Calculus. In: Backhouse, R., Oliveira, J.N. (eds) Mathematics of Program Construction. MPC 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1837. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/10722010_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/10722010_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-67727-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45025-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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