Re: Multi-method

Jean-Marc Bourguet <jm@bourguet.org> schreibt:


>In the first case, the use of "vtable" allows to have an efficient way
>of making this dispatch, even in the context of separate compilation
>(at the cost of constraining the possible types).
>


IMO the types here are not constrained. Every new type has a new VMT,
and since the invocation goes from the object (instance) through its
VMT to its method, it's a pretty extensible system.


With multiple parameters C++ templates may be useful. The key IMO is
the separation of the various parameters, so that in the best case
every single parameter can be handled separately. Otherwise up to N^M
procedures are required, to handle N parameters of M possible types.


In Delphi the TPersistent class has an Assign mechanism, which allows
to assign one object to another one. When A.Assign(B) is invoked, then
A executes the assignment if B is of a type, which is built into
A.Assign. Otherwise A calls B.AssignTo(A), whereupon B tries to
execute the assignment, in the opposite direction. Both Assign and
AssignTo are virtual methods, which pass unhandled arguments (types)
to their parent class method. If neither A nor B know about the other
type, then the assignment fails.


How would you exclude the latter case, that no procedure can handle a
given combination of dynamic types?


DoDi

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