Re: Eiffel and Java + Ada dispatching

[donh@syd.csa.com.au (Don Harrison)]

Jean-Marc Jezequel writes:

:The only thing you really need to make use of OO polymorphism is dynamic binding.
:While having at the same time static overloading can make some code fragment more "natural" to
:write, the apparent proximity of this feature with dynamic binding yield so much confusion on
:the non-expert eyes ...

Good point. Is this the (only) reason Eiffel does not have overloading?
I remember thinking once that it would also complicate multiple inheritance but
don't recall why I thought that.

:As an aside, I once wrote a paper on how to emulate multiple dispatch in a parallel 
:linear algebra library in Eiffel, and it was refused on the ground that a well known 
:existing library had already solved the problem using C++ overloading. Even this
:"expert" C++ referee had no clue on the difference between static and dynamic binding :-(

Well, if it's been done in C++, then what more can you have to offer? :)

This reminds me of the Australian mathematician, Andrew? Prentice, who has 
trouble getting his papers on the origin of the Solar System published because 
he rejects the 'accepted wisdom' of established academia. The fact that many 
(all?) of his predictions about the outer planets have been confirmed by space 
probes doesn't seem significant to the assessors. He has found some friends in
applied astronomy (at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory), but theoreticians have 
largely snubbed him.



Don.
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Don Harrison             donh@syd.csa.com.au