I have encountered a behavior that *might* be a bug but I wanted to get some input from folks before submitting it... Perhaps there is a simple workaround?
One of the major reasons to use Object Oriented Programming is because we can create abstract, generalized super classes and then create concrete subclasses that expect and create more specificity. (Polymorphism) The way this is implemented in Java (and other strongly-typed languages) is by using Method Overloading and Method Overriding. A subclass simply redefines a method with the same name as a superclass but implements a more specific argument and/or return type. In ActionScript, we don't get method overloading - Which is fine by me as it can often lead to a lot of verbose code and probably a bloated/slower runtime environment since we would then need runtime type-checking. When using the Flash IDE, I can write an abstract superclass that expects or returns a more generic object (Let's say "Object" for example). Then I can create a subclass that expects a more specific implementation of that object. (Let's say "ConcreteObject") This would be known as a simple "Method Override"... This fails in Flex because the compiler complains that the subclass must implement the *same* method signature that is found in the super class. For a good example, try extending Array and overriding one of it's built-in methods but accept or return a custom object rather than Object Object. That behavior is fine with me - IF - we are ALSO given the ability to "overload" methods, but without that capability, this problem renders the Flex Compiler pretty useless for real, Object-Oriented architecture because it fundamentally prevents polymorphism. Hasn't anyone else run into this? Please forgive me If this has already come up, I would be glad to have a link to some related conversation if you know of one and I would be even happier if there is a simple flag or workaround to make this work. Thanks, Luke Bayes www.asunit.com
