Jump to content

Expression problem

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Prescod (talk | contribs) at 21:06, 24 May 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Expression Problem is a term used in discussing strengths and weaknesses of various programming paradigms and programming languages. The expression problem can treated as a use case in programming language design.[1] [2] [3]

Philip Wadler coined the term:

The Expression Problem is a new name for an old problem. The goal is

to define a datatype by cases, where one can add new cases to the datatype and new functions over the datatype, without recompiling existing code, and while retaining static type safety (e.g., no casts).

[4]

Wadler selected the term as a pun. On the one hand, the programmer is trying to "express" a solution to a problem. On the other hand, the standard illustrative example given is that of an interpreter for [expressions (Programming Language)] in some simple calculator language.

The expression problem is also a fundamental problem in multi-dimensional Software Product Line design and in particular as an application (?) or special case(?) of FOSD Program Cubes.

See Also

* Applications of FOSD Program Cubes
* Generic Programming

References

  1. ^ "User-defined types and procedural data structures as complementary approaches to data abstraction".
  2. ^ "Object-Oriented Programming versues Abstract Data Types".
  3. ^ "Synthesizing Object-Oriented and Functional Design to Promote Re-Use".
  4. ^ "The Expression Problem".

This article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Expression_problem&oldid=292089077"