Open AccessFunctional Unparsing
Author(s) -
Olivier Danvy
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
brics report series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1601-5355
pISSN - 0909-0878
DOI - 10.7146/brics.v5i12.19284
Subject(s) - string (physics) , disk formatting , function (biology) , mathematics , representation (politics) , combinatorics , computer science , mathematical physics , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , operating system , politics , political science , law
A string-formatting function such as printf in C seemingly requires dependent types, because its control string determines the rest of its arguments. Examples: printf ("Hello world.\n"); printf ("The %s is %d.\n", "answer", 42); We show how changing the representation of the control string makes it possible to program printf in ML (which does not allow dependent types). The result is well typed and perceptibly more efficient than the corresponding library functions in Standard ML of New Jersey and in Caml.