type inference - terminology

• To: types@theory.LCS.MIT.EDU
• Subject: type inference - terminology
• From: "Uday S. Reddy" <reddy@cs.uiuc.edu>
• Date: Fri, 10 Nov 89 14:47:45 -0600
• Sender: meyer@theory.LCS.MIT.EDU

To: types@theory.LCS.MIT.EDU
Cc: thom@sbcs.sunysb.edu

There are two notions of "type inference" used in the literature.  One
is the problem of filling in types for a type-erased term so that we
get a term in an explicitly typed language (Cf. Mitchell and Harper's
explicitly typed ML).  The other is the problem of infering structural
properties about the untyped semantics of untyped terms (Cf.
implicitly typed ML).

In a recent talk, I used the terminology "type reconstruction" for the
first kind of problem and "type inference" for the second kind.  A
question arose as to whether this is standard terminology used
elsewhere.  I would appreciate any pointers or suggestions.

Uday Reddy

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