Overview

by Luea Cardelli Ever since Strachey's work in the 1960's, polymorphism has been classified into the parametric and overloading varieties. Parametric polymorphism has been the subject of extensive study for over two decades. Overloading, on the other hand, has often been considered too ad hoc to deserve much attention even though it has been, in some form, an ingredient of virtually every programming lan­ guage (much more so than parametric polymorphism). With the introduction of object-oriented languages, and in particular with multiple-dispatch object-oriented languages, overloading has become less of a programming convenience and more of a fundamental feature in need of proper explanation. This book provides a compelling framework for the study of run-time over­ loading and of its interactions with subtyping and with parametric polymorphism. The book also describes applications to object-oriented programming. This new framework is motivated by the relatively recent spread of programming languages that are entirely based on run-time overloading; this fact probably explains why this subject was not investigated earlier. Once properly understood, overloading reveals itself relevant also to the study of older and more conventional (single­ dispatch) object-oriented languages, clarifying delicate issues of covariance and contravariance of method types, and of run-time type analysis. In the final chapters, a synthesis is made between parametric and overloading polymorphism.

Full Product Details

Author:   Giuseppe Castagna
Publisher:   Birkhauser Boston Inc
Imprint:   Birkhauser Boston Inc
Edition:   1997 ed.
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   1.590kg
ISBN:  

9780817639051

ISBN 10:   0817639055
Pages:   366
Publication Date:   01 January 1997
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

I Introduction.- 1 Background and notation.- 2 A quick overview.- II Simple typing.- 3 Object-oriented programming.- 4 The ?&-calculus.- 5 Covariance and contravariance: conflict without a cause.- 6 Strong Normalization.- 7 Three variations on the theme.- 8 Interpretation of object-oriented languages.- 9 Imperative features and other widgets.- 10 Semansttics.- III Second order.- 11 Introduction to part III.- 12 Second order overloading.- 13 Second order overloading and object-oriented programming.- 14 Conclusion.- IV Appendixes.- A Specification of KOOL.- A.1 Terms.- A.2 Pretypes.- A.3 Subtyping.- A.4 Auxiliary Notation.- A.5 Typing Rules.- B Formal definition of the translation.- B.1 Without mutually recursive methods.- B.2 With recursive methods.- B.3 Overloaded functions.- B.4 Correctness of the type-checking.

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