Making Functionality More General

The definition for the notion of a "function" is not cast in stone, but depends upon what we adopt as types in our language. With partial equivalence relations (pers) as types in a relational language, we show that the functional relations are precisely those satisfying the simple equatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hutton, Graham, Voermans, Ed
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Published: 1992
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/240/
Description
Summary:The definition for the notion of a "function" is not cast in stone, but depends upon what we adopt as types in our language. With partial equivalence relations (pers) as types in a relational language, we show that the functional relations are precisely those satisfying the simple equation f = f o fu o f, where "o" and "u" are respectively the composition and converse operators for relations. This article forms part of "A calculational theory of pers as types".