---
title: Compiling a Functional Language Using C++, Part 10 - Polymorphism
date: 2020-02-29T20:09:37-08:00
tags: ["C and C++", "Functional Languages", "Compilers"]
draft: true
---
[In part 8]({{< relref "08_compiler_llvm.md" >}}), we wrote some pretty interesting programs in our little language.
We successfully expressed arithmetic and recursion. But there's one thing
that we cannot express in our language without further changes: an `if` statement.
Suppose we didn't want to add a special `if/else` expression into our language.
Thanks to lazy evaluation, we can express it using a function:
```
defn if c t e = {
case c of {
True -> { t }
False -> { e }
}
}
```
But an issue still remains: so far, our compiler remains __monomorphic__. That
is, a particular function can only have one possible type for each one of its
arguments. With our current setup, something like this
{{< sidenote "right" "if-note" "would not work:" >}}
In a polymorphically typed language, the inner if would just evaluate to
False, and the whole expression to 3.
{{< /sidenote >}}
```
if (if True False True) 11 3
```
This is because, for this to work, both of the following would need to hold (borrowing
some of our notation from the [typechecking]({{< relref "03_compiler_typechecking.md" >}}) post):
{{< latex >}}
\text{if} : \text{Bool} \rightarrow \text{Int} \rightarrow \text{Int} \rightarrow \text{Int}
{{< /latex >}}
{{< latex >}}
\text{if} : \text{Bool} \rightarrow \text{Bool} \rightarrow \text{Bool} \rightarrow \text{Bool}
{{< /latex >}}
But using our rules so far, such a thing is impossible, since there is no way for
\\(\text{Int}\\) to be unified with \\(\text{Bool}\\). We need a more powerful
set of rules to describe our program's types.
### Hindley-Milner Type System
One such powerful set of rules is the [Hindley-Milner type system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley%E2%80%93Milner_type_system),
which we have previously alluded to. In fact, the rules we came up
with were already very close to Hindley-Milner, with the exception of two:
__generalization__ and __instantiation__. It's been quite a while since the last time we worked on typechecking, so I'm going
to present a table with these new rules, as well as all of the ones that we previously used. I will also give a quick
summary of each of these rules.
Rule|Name and Description
-----|-------
{{< latex >}}
\frac
{x:\sigma \in \Gamma}
{\Gamma \vdash x:\sigma}
{{< /latex >}}| __Var__: If the variable \\(x\\) is known to have some polymorphic type \\(\\sigma\\) then an expression consisting only of that variable is of that type.
{{< latex >}}
\frac
{\Gamma \vdash e_1 : \tau_1 \rightarrow \tau_2 \quad \Gamma \vdash e_2 : \tau_1}
{\Gamma \vdash e_1 \; e_2 : \tau_2}
{{< /latex >}}| __App__: If an expression \\(e\_1\\), which is a function from monomorphic type \\(\\tau\_1\\) to another monomorphic type \\(\\tau\_2\\), is applied to an argument \\(e\_2\\) of type \\(\\tau\_1\\), then the result is of type \\(\\tau\_2\\).
{{< latex >}}
\frac
{\Gamma \vdash e : \tau \quad \text{matcht}(\tau, p_i) = b_i
\quad \Gamma,b_i \vdash e_i : \tau_c}
{\Gamma \vdash \text{case} \; e \; \text{of} \;
\{ (p_1,e_1) \ldots (p_n, e_n) \} : \tau_c }
{{< /latex >}}| __Case__: This rule is not part of Hindley-Milner, and is specific to our language. If the expression being case-analyzed is of type \\(\\tau\\) and each branch \\((p\_i, e\_i)\\) is of the same type \\(\\tau\_c\\) when the pattern \\(p\_i\\) works with type \\(\\tau\\) producing extra bindings \\(b\_i\\), the whole case expression is of type \\(\\tau\_c\\).
{{< latex >}}
\frac{\Gamma \vdash e : \sigma' \quad \sigma' \sqsubseteq \sigma}
{\Gamma \vdash e : \sigma}
{{< /latex >}}| __Inst (New)__: If type \\(\\sigma\\) is an instantiation (or specialization) of type \\(\\sigma\'\\) then an expression of type \\(\\sigma\'\\) is also an expression of type \\(\\sigma\\).
{{< latex >}}
\frac
{\Gamma \vdash e : \sigma \quad \alpha \not \in \text{free}(\Gamma)}
{\Gamma \vdash e : \forall \alpha . \sigma}
{{< /latex >}}| __Gen (New)__: If an expression has a type with free variables, this rule allows us generalize it to allow all possible types to be used for these free variables.
Here, there is a distinction between different forms of types. First, there are
monomorphic types, or __monotypes__, \\(\\tau\\), which are types such as \\(\\text{Int}\\),
\\(\\text{Int} \\rightarrow \\text{Bool}\\), \\(a \\rightarrow b\\)
and so on. These types are what we've been working with so far. Each of them
represents one (hence, "mono-"), concrete type. This is obvious in the case
of \\(\\text{Int}\\) and \\(\\text{Int} \\rightarrow \\text{Bool}\\), but
for \\(a \\rightarrow b\\) things are slightly less clear. Does it really
represent a single type, if we can put an arbtirary thing for \\(a\\)?
The answer is "yes"! Although \\(a\\) is not currently known, it stands
in place of another monotype, which is yet to be determined.
So, how do we represent polymorphic types, like that of \\(\\text{if}\\)?
We borrow some more notation from mathematics, and use the "forall" quantifier:
{{< latex >}}
\text{if} : \forall a \; . \; \text{Bool} \rightarrow a \rightarrow a \rightarrow a
{{< /latex >}}
This basically says, "the type of \\(\\text{if}\\) is \\(\\text{Bool} \\rightarrow a \\rightarrow a \\rightarrow a\\)
for all possible \\(a\\)". This new expression using "forall" is what we call a type scheme, or a polytype \\(\\sigma\\).
For simplicity, we only allow "forall" to be at the front of a polytype. That is, expressions like
\\(a \\rightarrow \\forall b \\; . \\; b \\rightarrow b\\) are not valid polytypes as far as we're concerned.
It's key to observe that only some of the typing rules in the above table use polytypes (\\(\\sigma\\)). Whereas expressions
consisting of a single variable can be polymorphically typed, this is not true for function applications and case expressions.
In fact, according to our rules, there is no way to introduce a polytype anywhere into our system!
The reason for this is that we only allow polymorphism at certain locations. In the Hindley-Milner type system,
this is called __Let-Polymorphism__, which means that only in `let`/`in` expressions can variables or expressions
be given a polymorphic type. We, on the other hand, do not (yet) have `let`/`in` expressions, so our polymorphism
is further limited: only functions (and data type constructors) can be polymorphically typed.
Let's talk about what __Inst__ does, and what "\\(\\sqsubseteq\\)" means.
First, why don't we go ahead and write the formal inference rule for \\(\\sqsubseteq\\):
{{< latex >}}
\frac
{\tau'=\{\alpha_i \mapsto \tau_i \}\tau \quad \beta_i \not \in \text{free}(\forall \alpha_1...\forall \alpha_n \; . \; \tau)}
{\forall \alpha_1 ... \forall \alpha_n \; . \; \tau \sqsubseteq \forall \beta_1 ... \forall \beta_m \; . \; \tau'}
{{< /latex >}}
In my opinion, this is one of the more confusing inference rules we have to deal with in Hindley-Milner.
In principle, though, it's not too hard to understand. \\(\\sigma\' \\sqsubseteq \\sigma\\) says "\\(\\sigma\'\\)
is more general than \\(\\sigma\\)". Alternatively, we can interpret it as "\\(\\sigma\\) is an instance of \\(\\sigma\'\\)".
What does it mean for one polytype to be more general than another? Intuitively, we might say that \\(\forall a \\; . \\; a \\rightarrow a\\) is
more general than \\(\\text{Int} \\rightarrow \\text{Int}\\), because the former type can represent the latter, and more. Formally,
we define this in terms of __substitutions__. A substitution \\(\\{\\alpha \\mapsto \\tau \\}\\) replaces a variable
\\(\\alpha\\) with a monotype \\(\\tau\\). If we can use a substitution to convert one type into another, then the first
type (the one on which the substitution was performed) is more general than the resulting type. In our previous example,
since we can apply the substitution \\(\\{a \\mapsto \\text{Int}\\}\\) to get \\(\\text{Int} \\rightarrow \\text{Int}\\)
from \\(\\forall a \\; . \\; a \\rightarrow a\\), the latter type is more general; using our notation,
\\(\\forall a \\; . \\; a \\rightarrow a \\sqsubseteq \\text{Int} \\rightarrow \\text{Int}\\).
That's pretty much all that the rule says, really. But what about the whole thing with \\(\\beta\\) and \\(\\text{free}\\)? The reason
for that part of the rule is that, in principle, we can substitute polytypes into polytypes. However, we can't
do this using \\(\\{ \\alpha \\mapsto \\sigma \\}\\). Consider, for example:
{{< latex >}}
\{ a \mapsto \forall b \; . \; b \rightarrow b \} \; \text{Bool} \rightarrow a \rightarrow a \stackrel{?}{=}
\text{Bool} \rightarrow (\forall b \; . \; b \rightarrow b) \rightarrow \forall b \; . \; b \rightarrow b
{{< /latex >}}
Hmm, this is not good. Didn't we agree that we only want quantifiers at the front of our types? Instead, to make that substitution,
we only substitute the monotype \\(b \\rightarrow b\\), and then add the \\(\\forall b\\) at the front. But
to do this, we must make sure that \\(b\\) doesn't occur anywhere in the original type
\\(\forall a \\; . \\; \\text{Bool} \\rightarrow a \\rightarrow a\\) (otherwise we can accidentally generalize
too much). So then, our concrete inference rule is as follows:
{{< latex >}}
\frac
{
\begin{gathered}
\text{Bool} \rightarrow (b \rightarrow b) \rightarrow b \rightarrow b =\{a \mapsto (b \rightarrow b) \} \; \text{Bool} \rightarrow a \rightarrow a \\
b \not \in \text{free}(\forall a \; . \; \text{Bool} \rightarrow a \rightarrow a) = \varnothing
\end{gathered}
}
{\forall a \; . \; \text{Bool} \rightarrow a \rightarrow a \sqsubseteq \forall b \; . \; \text{Bool} \rightarrow (b \rightarrow b) \rightarrow b \rightarrow b}
{{< /latex >}}
In the above rule we:
1. Replaced \\(a\\) with \\(b \\rightarrow b\\), getting rid of \\(a\\) in the quantifier.
2. Observed that \\(b\\) is not a free variable in the original type, and thus can be generalized.
3. Added the generalization for \\(b\\) to the front of the resulting type.
Now, __Inst__ just allows us to perform specialization / substitution as many times
as we need to get to the type we want.
### A New Typechecking Algorithm
Alright, now we have all these rules. How does this change our typechecking algorithm?
How about the following:
1. To every declared function, assign the type \\(a \\rightarrow ... \\rightarrow y \\rightarrow z\\),
where
{{< sidenote "right" "arguments-note" "\(a\) through \(y\) are the types of the arguments to the function" >}}
Of course, there can be more or less than 25 arguments to any function. This is just a generalization;
we use as many input types as are needed.
{{< /sidenote >}}, and \\(z\\) is the function's
return type.
2. We typecheck each declared function, using the __Var__, __Case__, __App__, and __Inst__ rules.
3. Whatever type variables we don't fill in, we assume can be filled in with any type,
and use the __Gen__ rule to sprinkle polymorphism where it is needed.
Maybe this is enough. Let's go through an example. Suppose we have three functions:
```
defn if c t e = {
case c of {
True -> { t }
False -> { e }
}
}
defn testOne = { if True False True }
defn testTwo = { if True 0 1 }
```
If we go through and type check them top-to-bottom, the following happens:
1. We start by assuming \\(\\text{if} : a \\rightarrow b \\rightarrow c \\rightarrow d\\),
\\(\\text{testOne} : e\\) and \\(\\text{testTwo} : f\\).
2. We look at `if`. We infer the type of `c` to be \\(\\text{Bool}\\), and thus, \\(a = \\text{Bool}\\).
We also infer that \\(b = c\\), since they occur in two branches of the same case expression.
Finally, we infer that \\(c = d\\), since whatever the case expression returns becomes the return
value of the function. Thus, we come out knowing that \\(\\text{if} : \\text{Bool} \\rightarrow b
\\rightarrow b \\rightarrow b\\).
3. Now, since we never figured out \\(b\\), we use __Gen__: \\(\\text{if} : \\forall b \\; . \\;
\\text{Bool} \\rightarrow b \\rightarrow b \\rightarrow b\\). Like we'd want, `if` works with
all types, as long as both its inputs are of the same type.
4. When we typecheck the body of `testOne`, we use __Inst__ to turn the above type for `if`
into a single, monomorphic instance. Then, type inference proceeds as before, and all is well.
5. When we typecheck the body of `testTwo`, we use __Inst__ again, instantiating a new monotype,
and all is well again.
So far, so good. But what if we started from the bottom, and went to the top?
1. We start by assuming \\(\\text{if} : a \\rightarrow b \\rightarrow c \\rightarrow d\\),
\\(\\text{testOne} : e\\) and \\(\\text{testTwo} : f\\).
2. We look at `testTwo`. We infer that \\(a = \\text{Bool}\\) (since
we pass in `True` to `if`). We also infer that \\(b = \\text{Int}\\), and that \\(c = \\text{Int}\\).
Not yet sure of the return type of `if`, this is where we stop. We are left with
the knowledge that \\(f = d\\) (because the return type of `if` is the return type of `testTwo`),
but that's about it. Since \\(f\\) is no longer free, we don't generalize, and conclude that \\(\text{testTwo} : f\\).
3. We look at `testOne`. We infer that \\(a = \\text{Bool}\\) (already known). We also infer
that \\(b = \\text{Bool}\\), and that \\(c = \\text{Bool}\\). But wait a minute! This is not right.
We are back to where we started, with a unification error!
What went wrong? I claim that we typechecked the functions that _used_ `if` before we typechecked `if` itself,
which led us to infer a less-than-general type for `if`. This less-than-general type was insufficient to
correctly check the whole program.
To address this, we enforce a particular order of type inference on our declaration, guided by dependencies
between functions. Haskell, which has to deal with a similar issue, has
[a section in the 2010 report on this](https://www.haskell.org/onlinereport/haskell2010/haskellch4.html#x10-880004.5).
In short:
1. We find the
{{< sidenote "right" "transitive-closure-note" "transitive closure" >}}
A transitive closure of a vertex in a graph is the list of all vertices reachable
from that original vertex. Check out the
Wikipedia page on this.
{{< /sidenote >}}
of the function dependencies. We define a function \\(f\\) to be dependent on another function \\(g\\)
if \\(f\\) calls \\(g\\). The transitive closure will help us find functions that are related indirectly.
For instance, if \\(g\\) also depends on \\(h\\), then the transitive closure of \\(f\\) will
include \\(h\\), even if \\(f\\) directly doesn't use \\(h\\).
2. We isolate groups of mutually dependent functions. If \\(f\\) depends on \\(g\\) and \\(g\\) depends \\(f\\),
they are placed in one group. We then construct a dependency graph __of these groups__.
3. We compute a topological order of the group graph. This helps us typecheck the dependencies
of functions before checking the functions themselves. In our specific case, this would ensure
we check `if` first, and only then move on to `testOne` and `testTwo`. The order of typechecking
within a group does not matter.
4. We typecheck the function groups, and functions within them, following the above topological order.
To find the transitive closure of a graph, we can use [Warshall's Algorithm](https://cs.winona.edu/lin/cs440/ch08-2.pdf).