The problem is your mult function: It should look like this:
primrec mult :: "nati ⇒ nati ⇒ nati" where
"mult Zero n = Zero" |
"mult (Suc m) n = add (mult m n) m"
Function application in functional programming/Lambda calculus is the operation that binds strongest and it associates to the left: something like f x y means ‘f applied to x, and the result applied to y’ – or, equivalently due to Currying: the function f applied to the parameters x and y.
Therefore, something like mult Suc(Zero) n would be read as mult Suc Zero n, i.e. the function mult would have to be a function taking three parameters, namely Suc, Zero, and n. That gives you a type error. Similarly, add ((mult m n) m) does not work, since that is identical to add (mult m n m), which would mean that add is a function taking one parameter and mult is one taking three.
Lastly, if you fix all that, you will get another error saying you have a non-primitive pattern on the left-hand side of your mult function. You cannot pattern-match on something like Suc Zero since it is not a primitive pattern. You can do that if you use fun instead of primrec, but it is not what you want to do here: You want to instead handle the cases Zero and Suc (see my solution). In your definition, mult Zero n would even be undefined.
