Dan Sugalski wrote: > At 9:10 AM -0400 9/4/02, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> So, just to clarify, does that mean that multi-dispatch is (by >> definition) >> a run-time thing, and overloading is (by def) a compile time thing? > > No. They can be both compile time things or runtime things, depending on > the characteristics of the language.
I don't think so. Those terms are well understood by the OO community. Bertrand Meyer wrote on the subject: http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/meyer/publications/joop/overloading.pdf Prior to C++ there might have been some ambiguity (for example, some people have talked about run-time vs compile-time overloading), but C++ has completely stolen the term. Here's a slide from one of Damian's presentations that states multi-methods are "Like C++ overloading, but polymorphic." http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~damian/TPC/1999/MultipleDispatch/Presentation/sld010.htm - Ken
