On Thursday 30 September 2004 18:35, Jacques Carette wrote:
> I also see an analogy with type systems such as Ocaml's: in theory, type
> inference is exponential, while in practice it is very fast.

I'd contest the "very fast".

When writing an API for my vector graphics engine, I wrote a lot of generic 
HOFs. The time taken to compile increased by a factor of ten. This prompted 
me to split my sources into separate compilation units to speed partial 
recompilations.

I believe the slow compile times are due to the complicated types involved 
(often half a page in the .mli) although the functions themselves are often 
very simple. So I think the time taken for compilers to deal with types can 
be very significant and can influence programming. So I don't think type 
handling is not always "very fast" in practice.

Cheers,
Jon.

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