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Hutton's Razor is a trivial expression language with constants and addition:

data HR = Const Int 
        | HR :+: HR

eval :: HR -> Int
eval (Const n)   = n
eval (e1 :+: e2) = eval e1 + eval e2

It appears in many programming examples on the web, e.g. [1,2,3,4]. Does anyone know where it's first defined, maybe by Graham Hutton in a paper?

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This question appears to be off-topic because it is about a documented reference. – madth3 Aug 21 '13 at 1:04
up vote 8 down vote accepted

The earliest mention I can find is in 1998, in Section 2.1 of Hutton's Fold and Unfold for Program Semantics.

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up vote 2 down vote

Hutton and Wright's 2004 "Compiling Exceptions Correctly" describes such a language. It does not use the term "Hutton's Razor" (nor would we expect it to) but it introduces this minimal language with sufficient motivation to imply there isn't prior art in mind for such a drastic approach. On the first coinage of "hutton's razor" to describe this langauge, I really have no idea...

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Yes, I don't expect Hutton to call it "Hutton's Razor", at least not initially :D – ntc2 Jul 26 '13 at 2:14

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