Global Type Inference for Featherweight Generic Java

Abstract

Java's type system mostly relies on type checking augmented with local type inference to improve programmer convenience. We study global type inference for Featherweight Generic Java (FGJ), a functional Java core language. Given generic class headers and field specifications, our inference algorithm infers all method types if classes do not make use of polymorphic recursion. The algorithm is constraint-based and improves on prior work in several respects. Despite the restricted setting, global type inference for FGJ is NP-complete.