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Towards a Theory of Bulk Types

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Towards a Theory of Bulk Types
Authors: David A. Watt, Phil Trinder
Contributors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Source: ftp://ftp.dcs.glasgow.ac.uk/pub/glasgow-fp/authors/Philip_Trinder/bdtt.ps.Z
Publication Year: 1991
Collection: CiteSeerX
Subject Terms: Database Programming Languages, Bulk Types, Queries, Algebraic Specification, Comprehensions, Ringads, Monads
Description: A database programming language can model application domains most naturally if it supports several bulk types, e.g., lists, sets, and relations. Indeed some persistent programming languages permit the programmer to define new bulk types that are appropriate to the application domain. Such a richly typed language tends to be complex, since constructs must be provided to declare, construct, inspect, and update instances of every bulk type. The collection theory presented here controls the complexity of such richly typed languages by exploiting operations and properties common to a variety of bulk types. The theory is based on four operations -- three constructor operations and one iterator -- that obey certain algebraic laws. In addition, a rich set of additional operations can be defined in terms of the basic operations. Sets, bags, lists, certain trees, relations, and finite mappings are all encompassed by the collection theory. Conversely, types that we would not intuitively classify.
Document Type: text
File Description: application/postscript
Language: English
Relation: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.56.2192
Availability: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.56.2192
Rights: Metadata may be used without restrictions as long as the oai identifier remains attached to it.
Accession Number: edsbas.3EE96793
Database: BASE
Description
Abstract:A database programming language can model application domains most naturally if it supports several bulk types, e.g., lists, sets, and relations. Indeed some persistent programming languages permit the programmer to define new bulk types that are appropriate to the application domain. Such a richly typed language tends to be complex, since constructs must be provided to declare, construct, inspect, and update instances of every bulk type. The collection theory presented here controls the complexity of such richly typed languages by exploiting operations and properties common to a variety of bulk types. The theory is based on four operations -- three constructor operations and one iterator -- that obey certain algebraic laws. In addition, a rich set of additional operations can be defined in terms of the basic operations. Sets, bags, lists, certain trees, relations, and finite mappings are all encompassed by the collection theory. Conversely, types that we would not intuitively classify.