linear type

linear type

1. An attribute of values which are usedexactly once: they are neither duplicated nor destroyed. Suchvalues require no garbage collection, and can safely beupdated in place, even if they form part of a data structure.

Linear types are related to the linear logic of J.-Y Girard.They extend Schmidt's notion of single threading, provide analternative to Hudak and Bloss' update analysis, and offer apractical complement to Lafont and Holmstr?m's elegant linear languages.

['Use-Once' Variables and Linear Objects - Storage Management,Reflection and Multi-Threading, Henry Baker.ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hb/hbaker/Use1Var.html].

["Linear types can change the world!", Philip Wadler,"Programming Concepts and Methods", April 1990, eds. M. Broy,C. Jones, pub. North-Holland, IFIP TC2 Working Conference onProgramming Concepts and Methods, Sea of Galilee, Israel].