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3 points by almkglor 5957 days ago | link | parent

Okay, here's the solution I've been thinking of.

  (def coerce (obj typ . rest)
    (apply <base>coerce obj (annotate typ nil) rest))

  (defm <base>coerce ((t obj my-type) (t _ string))
    (convert-my-type-to-string obj))

                                     ; edit: corrected type
  (defm <base>coerce ((t obj string) (t _ my-type))
    (convert-string-to-my-type obj))
Also, for variadic functions:

  (def + rest
    (reduce <base>+ rest))

  (defm <base>+ ((t x string) (t y string))
    (join x y))
Further, optional parameters are simply ignored and considered as part of the rest parameter (i.e. they can't be typed). Basically, the typesystem matches on the first N parameters, where N is how many type parameters you care to define.

Why the first N parameters? So that we can protect against optional parameters defaulting to values that are inappropriate for other types, such as the 'scanner example I gave above.