4 ms·
ML first appeared in 1973. Pretty impressive considering the laundry list of features, many of which are missing from mainstream industrial languages. For examp
by willtim 9y ago
ML first appeared in 1973. Pretty impressive considering the laundry list of features, many of which are missing from mainstream industrial languages. For example: parametric polymorphism (aka "generics"), pattern-matching and type inference.
- k__ 9y agolol, I hate the words "parametric polymorphism" had it as a question in an university exam and failed, because I only learned "generics" and "templates" xD love the concept tho
- willtim 9y agoThe problem with the word "generics" is that it already meant something else in programming language theory. If I used reflection to implement a serialisation function in Java or C#, it could be generic with respect to the data-type of the value passed in, but not parametric. A parametric polymorphic function strictly has the same behaviour for all types, a generic one has type-dependent behaviour. This matters of course when we want to reason about programs.