Abstract

ORTIN, Francisco; QUIROGA, Jose; REDONDO, Jose M.  and  GARCIA, Miguel. Attaining multiple dispatch in widespread object-oriented languages. Dyna rev.fac.nac.minas [online]. 2014, vol.81, n.186, pp.242-250. ISSN 0012-7353.  https://doi.org/10.15446/dyna.v81n186.40428.

Multiple dispatch allows determining the actual method to be executed, depending on the dynamic types of its arguments. Although some programming languages provide multiple dispatch, most widespread object-oriented languages lack this feature. Therefore, different implementation techniques are commonly used to obtain multiple dispatch in these languages. We evaluate the existing approaches, presenting a new one based on hybrid dynamic and static typing. A qualitative evaluation is presented, considering factors such as software maintainability and readability, code size, parameter generalization, and compile-time type checking. We also perform a quantitative assessment of runtime performance and memory consumption.

Keywords : Multiple dispatch; multi-method; dynamic binding; reflection; method overload; hybrid typing.

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