Functional Dependencies (Was RE: Dimensional analysis with fundeps)

[Mark P Jones]

Dear All,

| 1) What is a fundep?

Fundeps are "functional dependencies", which have long been used to
specify constraints on the tables used in relational databases.  In
the current context, people are using "fundeps" to refer to the way
that this idea has been adapted to work with multiple parameter type
classes.  My paper on this subject was presented at ESOP last year,
but the publishers asked me not to distribute the paper electronically
until a year after the conference.  Now that year has passed, and
I am happy to make the paper available:

  http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~mpj/pubs/fundeps-esop2000.pdf

Note that, for reasons of space, I wasn't able to include all the
technical details of the type system in the paper.  If you are
interested in such details, or you are looking for more background,
then you might want to check out my earlier work on "Simplifying
and Improving Qualified Types", which is available from:

  http://www.cse.ogi.edu/~mpj/pubs/improve.html

All the best,
Mark