Subject: (no subject)
mayur@crosswinds.net
Date: Wed May 03 2000 - 22:55:23 PDT
I have a query concerning constructing dispatchers for programs
written in a language like Cecil which allows mixed statically-
and dynamically-typed code by virtue of its optional static type
system built on a dynamically-typed core.
Suppose a statically-typed Cecil program has 2 sets of methods
such that:
1. All methods have the same name and number of args.
2. One set of methods conforms to signature X and the other
conforms to signature Y.
Do you generate 2 dispatchers (one for messages conforming to
sign X and the other for messages conforming to sign Y) or do
you generate just one dispatcher which uniformly handles both
kinds of messages?
One would follow the former approach if the language were purely
statically-typed and the latter if it were purely
dynamically-typed. But what does one do when the program is
written in a language like Cecil? I believe there are three
approaches:
1. Follow the latter approach indiscriminately.
2. Provide a compile time option which allows the programmer to
indicate whether the program is purely statically-typed.
If it is, the compiler can take advantage of the former
approach. If it isn't, the compiler uses the latter
approach irrespective of whether the program is purely
dynamically-typed or mixed statically- and dynamically-typed.
3. The compiler should be smart enough to determine when to
follow the former approach and when to follow the latter.
This is probably not feasible.
Could you please comment on the above? Thanks for your time.
-- Mayur
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