Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Indeed; Haskell uses an extension of the Hindley-Milner type system, which is decidable, and the extension with type classes doesn't impact decidability. Yet, Haskell type inference is not necessarily efficient; as noted in [1]

> Hindley–Milner type inference is DEXPTIME-complete. In fact, merely deciding whether an ML program is typeable (without having to infer a type) is itself DEXPTIME-complete. Non-linear behaviour does manifest itself, yet mostly on pathological inputs. Thus the complexity theoretic proofs by Mairson (1990) and Kfoury, Tiuryn & Urzyczyn (1990) came as a surprise to the research community.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindley%E2%80%93Milner_type_sy...



Consider applying for YC's Winter 2026 batch! Applications are open till Nov 10

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: