fram-lang / fram-lang/dbl

Escaping type variables in some recursive functions

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1. type inference
Dominant language
OCaml
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Description

Some functions cannot be annotated properly.

Consider the this seemingly useless list copy function:
```
let rec copy xs =
match xs with
| [] => []
| x :: xs => x :: copy xs
end
```
This variant works fine.
However, annotated variant is rejected due to "escaping type var":
```
let rec copy {X} (xs : List X) =
match xs with
| [] => []
| x :: xs => x :: copy xs
end
```
```
error: This expression has type List a, but an expression was expected of type List X
-> Lazy.fram
81 | match xs with
82 | | [] => []
83 |> | x :: xs => x :: copy xs
| ^^^^^^^
note: Type variable X escapes its scope
-> Lazy.fram
81 | match xs with
82 | | [] => []
83 |> | x :: xs => x :: copy xs
```

One way to get around this hurdle is to explicitly annotate returning value:
```
let rec copy {X} (xs : List X) =
(match xs with
| [] => []
| x :: xs => x :: copy xs
end : List X)
```

This issue is especially annoying when effect are involved. Speeding up type checker requires us to explicitly annotate effects, yet sometimes it is not possible without annotating return value.

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