Parametricity and Unboxing with Unpointed Types

John Launchbury and Ross Paterson. In European Symposium on Programming, Linköping, Sweden, April 1996, LNCS vol. 1058, pages 204-218.

Abstract

In lazy functional languages, bottom is typically an element of every type. While this provides great flexibility, it also comes at a cost. In this paper we explore the consequences of allowing unpointed types in a lazy functional language like Haskell. We use the type (and class) system to keep track of pointedness, and show the consequences for parametricity and for controlling evaluation order and unboxing.

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