Generic Programming
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<b> [[People]]</b>
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<b> [[Publications]]</b>
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<td  class="br">
<b>[[Projects]]</b>
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<b>[[Libraries]]</b>
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<b>[[Teaching]]</b>
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<b> [[MastersProjects][Master's Projects]]</b>
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<b>[[Events]]</b>
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---++ Description
One of the research themes investigated within the [[http://www.cs.uu.nl/groups/ST/][Software Technology Center]] in the [[http://www.cs.uu.nl/][Department of Information and Computing Sciences]] at 
[[http://www.uu.nl/][Utrecht University]] is *generic programming* (GP). Over the last 10 years, we have played a 
central role in the development of generic programming techniques, languages, and 
libraries.

---+++ What is Generic Programming?
Software development often consists of designing a data type, to which functionality is 
added. Some functionality is datatype specific, other functionality is defined on almost 
all data types, and only depends on the structure of the data type. This is called 
datatype-generic functionality. Examples of datatype-generic functionality are storing a 
value in a database, editing a value, comparing two values for equality, pretty-printing a 
value, etc. Larger applications of generic programming are: 

   * XML tools such as XML compressors, and type-safe XML data-binding tools; 
   * automatic testing; 
   * constructing &#8216;boilerplate&#8217; code that traverses a value of a rich set of mutually-recursive 
     data types, applying real functionality at a small portion of the data type; 
   * structure editors such as XML editors, and generic graphical user interfaces; 
   * data-conversion tools which for example store a data-type value in a database, 
      or output it as XML, or in a binary format, or . . . 

---+++ Projects

Within several projects we have been developing programming language concepts for generic programming,
applications of generic programming, and libraries for generic programming. We have contributed to, and are 
contributing to several projects:

   * [[http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~patrikj/poly/ PolyP]]
   * [[http://www.generic-haskell.org/ Generic Haskell]]
   * [[Real-life datatype-generic programming]]

---+++ Are you interested?
We have a nice group working on several aspects of generic programming. But there is always more to do, and you are welcome to contribute.

---+++++ Master's Student
If you are a master's student at Utrecht University, you can write a thesis on several aspects of generic programming, both on theoretical and more practical aspects. See our *[[MastersProjects][master's projects]]* for more information.

---+++++ !PhD Students and Postdocs
We welcome potential !PhD students or postdoctoral researchers. At the moment, we have no funding to pay for more positions, but please let us know if you can arrange your own.

Current !PhD students include:

   * [[http://www.cs.uu.nl/staff/leather.html][Sean Leather]]
   * [[http://www.cs.uu.nl/staff/jpm.html][Jos&eacute; Pedro Magalh&atilde;es]]


Former !PhD students include:

   * [[http://www.cs.uu.nl/staff/alexey.html][Alexey Rodriguez Yakushev]]: _Towards Getting Generic Programming Ready for Prime Time_ (2009)
   * [[http://www.andres-loeh.de/][Andres L&ouml;h]]: _Exploring Generic Haskell_ (2004)
   * [[http://www.cs.chalmers.se/~patrikj/][Patrik Jansson]]: _Functional Polytypic Programming_ (2000)

---++ Related Links
   * [[http://www.haskell.org/][Haskell]] - Haskell is an advanced purely functional programming language.
   * [[http://www.haskell.org/ghc/][GHC]] - The Glasgow Haskell Compiler is a state-of-the-art, open source compiler and interactive environment for Haskell.