Parametric polymorphism for XML

Despite the extensiveness of recent investigations on static typing for XML, parametric polymorphism has rarely been treated. This well-established typing discipline can also be useful in XML processing in particular for programs involving "parametric schemas," i.e., schemas parameterized over other schemas (e.g., SOAP). The difficulty in treating polymorphism for XML lies in how to extend the "semantic" approach used in the mainstream (monomorphic) XML type systems. A naive extension would be "semantic" quantification over all substitutions for type variables. However, this approach reduces to an NEXPTIME-complete problem for which no practical algorithm is known. In this paper, we propose a different method that smoothly extends the semantic approach yet is algorithmically easier. In this, we devise a novel and simple marking technique, where we interpret a polymorphic type as a set of values with annotations of which subparts are parameterized. We expl...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: POPL
• Authors: Haruo Hosoya, Alain Frisch, Giuseppe Castagna
• Keywords: Polymorphic Type, POPL 2005, Programming Languages, Simple Marking Technique, Usual Expected Behavior