Abstract
Structured data are generally composed from constituent parts by constructors and decomposed by selectors. The authors prove that the usual many-sorted algebra approach to abstract data types cannot capture the simple intuition in a satisfactory way. They also show that order-sorted algebra does solve this problem, and many others concerning ill-defined and erroneous expressions, in a simple and natural way. In particular, they show how order-sorted algebra supports an elegant solution to the problems of multiple representations and coercions. The essence of order-sorted algebra is that sorts have subsorts, whose semantic interpretation is the subset relation on the carriers of algebras.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | Unknown Host Publication Title |
Publisher | IEEE |
Pages | 18-29 |
Number of pages | 12 |
ISBN (Print) | 0818607939 |
State | Published - 1987 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Software
- General Mathematics