Standard ML Type Inference

Abstract

Many language implementations, like C++ and Java, check the types of values and operations to be sure each operation is supported for the types of its operands. An important feature of Standard ML is the type inference system which is somewhat like the type checkers of C++ and Java, but a bit more powerful. A type checker checks the types written by the programmer to be sure each type declaration is consistent with the operations being performed, values being passed to functions, and the values being returned. Compilers for Java and C++ even infer the types of some expressions when polymorphic operators are used. For instance, the addition operator has multiple result types depending on the types of its operands.