Adding kind-polymorphism to the Scala programming language
summary
Proposal: add universal kind polymorphism so generic derivation handles type constructors of arbitrary kind instead of only and ->. Prototypes live in typelevel Scala and in Dotty, implemented via AnyKind bounds and a GADT-style type-apply encoding plus synthesized bridge methods. Result: library authors get simpler, more uniform Generic derivation* and can auto-derive things like FunctorK and partial-to-complete transformers; it is experimentally working but needs SIP, type-inference tweaks and ergonomic polishing before wide adoption.
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chapters (7)
- 0:00Start
- 1:15Background
- 5:12Non-portable macros
- 7:19What kinds are representable?
- 17:14Can we abstract way the differences?
- 22:56Introducing kind polymorphism
- 37:23Other kinds
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