CentralNotice Hindley–Milner type system From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search In type theory and functional programming , Hindley–Milner ( HM ) (also known as Damas–Milner or Damas–Hindley–Milner ) is a classical type system for the lambda calculus with parametric polymorphism , first described by J. Roger Hindley [ 1 ] and later rediscovered by Robin Milner . [ 2 ] Luis Damas contributed a close formal analysis and proof of the method in his PhD thesis. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Among HM's more notable properties is completeness and its ability to deduce the most general type of a given program without the need of any type annotations or other hints supplied by the programmer. Algorithm W is a fast algorithm, performing type inference in almost linear time with respect to the size of the source, making it practically usable to type large programs. [ not...