Attaining multiple dispatch in widespread object-oriented languages

• Francisco Ortin ^[1] ; Jose Quiroga ^[1] ; J. M. Redondo ; Miguel Garcia ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad de Oviedo

     Universidad de Oviedo

     Oviedo, España

     
• Localización: DYNA: revista de la Facultad de Minas. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Sede Medellín, ISSN 0012-7353, Vol. 81, Nº. 186, 2014, págs. 242-250
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.15446/dyna.v81n186.40428
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Aproximaciones para obtener multi-métodos en los lenguajes orientados a objetos más extendidos
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    Los multi-métodos seleccionan una de las implementaciones de un método sobrecargado, dependiendo en el tipo dinámico de sus argumentos. Aunque existen lenguajes que soportan multi-métodos, la mayoría de los lenguajes más extendidos no ofrecen esta funcionalidad. Por ello, es común ver el uso de distintos mecanismos auxiliares para obtener su funcionalidad. En este artículo evaluamos las alternativas existentes y presentamos una nueva basada en lenguajes con tipado híbrido. Una primera evaluación cualitativa analiza factores como la mantenibilidad, legibilidad, tamaño del código fuente, generalización de los parámetros y comprobación estática de tipos. También presentamos una evaluación cuantitativa del rendimiento en tiempo de ejecución y consumo de memoria.

  • English

    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.

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