A polymorphic functional language applied to symbolic computation

Abstract

The programming language in which to describe mathematical objects and algorithms is a fundamental issue in the design of a symbolic computation system. XFun is a strongly typed functional programming language. Although it was not designed as a specialized language, its sophisticated type system can be successfully applied to describe mathematical objects and structures. After illustrating its main features, we sketch how it could be applied to symbolic computation. A comparison withScratchpad II is attempted. XFun seems to exhibit more flexibility, simplicity and uniformity.