From: Albert Wagner <alwagner@...>
Date: 2002-09-13T05:22:45+09:00
Subject: Re: not grasping the method overloading/multi-dispatch thing

On Thursday 12 September 2002 01:40 pm, Phil Tomson wrote:
<snip>
> Currently if we need a method that does two different things based on
> the type of an argument we have to do:
>
>   def meth(s)
>     case s
>     when Integer
>       #do something
>     when Float
>       #do something else
>     end
>   end
>
> It _would_ be nice to be able to declare two meth methods as shown above
> instead of having to test the type of the argument.

My 2 cents:  When I find that I am testing type, as above, then it usually 
means that it's time to refactor.  Then you can have two methods with the 
same name, but in different classes, where they belong.

>
> However, I also agree with David that this could change the nature of the
> language.  I also suspect that there will be a performance
> hit for all code even if you don't use method overloading.  IF it could be
> implemented in such as way as to not impact performance if you don't use
> the feature, then I'd probably lean towards doing it.
>
> Phil