‹Programming› 2026
Mon 16 - Fri 20 March 2026 Munich, Germany
Wed 18 Mar 2026 13:30 - 14:15 at Lecture Hall - Type systems Chair(s): Ben Greenman

The expression problem describes a fundamental tradeoff between two types of extensibility: extending a type with new operations, such as by pattern matching on an algebraic data type in functional programming, and extending a type with new constructors, such as by adding a new object implementing an interface in object-oriented programming. Most dependently typed languages have good support for the former style through inductive types, but support for the latter style through coinductive types is usually much poorer. Polarity is a language that treats both kinds of types symmetrically and allows the developer to switch between type representations. However, it currently lacks several features expected of a state-of-the-art dependently typed language, such as implicit arguments. The central aim of this paper is to provide an algorithmic type system and inference algorithm for implicit arguments that respect the core symmetry of the language. Our work provides two key contributions: a complete algorithmic description of the type system backing Polarity, and a comprehensive description of a unification algorithm that covers arbitrary inductive and coinductive types. We give rules for reduction semantics, conversion checking, and a unification algorithm for pattern-matching, which are essential for a usable implementation. A work-in-progress implementation of the algorithms in this paper is available at polarity-lang.github.io. We expect that the comprehensive account of the unification algorithm and our design decisions can serve as a blueprint for other dependently typed languages that support inductive and coinductive types symmetrically.

Wed 18 Mar

Displayed time zone: Amsterdam, Berlin, Bern, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna change

13:30 - 15:00
Type systemsResearch Papers at Lecture Hall
Chair(s): Ben Greenman University of Utah, USA
13:30
45m
Talk
Filling the Gaps of Polarity
Research Papers
Bohdan Liesnikov Delft University of Technology, David Binder University of Kent, UK, Tim Süberkrüb University of Tübingen
DOI
14:15
45m
Talk
A Type System for Data Privacy Compliance in Active Object Languages
Research Papers
Chinmayi Prabhu Baramashetru University of Oslo, Paola Giannini University of Eastern Piedmont, Silvia Lizeth Tapia Tarifa University of Oslo, Norway, Olaf Owe University of Oslo
DOI