🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <60157@mimsy.umd.edu> alex@cs.umd.edu (Alex Blakemore) writes:
> actually having several functions share a single name can be very 
> useful. Its called overloading of course and exists in languages like 
> Ada and C++. As long as the compiler can resolve the reference to the 
> correct call, and you only overload semantically similar operations, it 
> can be a great convenience.
> 
> There's no need to remember half a dozen names for the same conceptual 
> operation. you could then use just setValue: instead of setStringValue:, 
> setIntValue:, setFloatValue: etc - the compiler can figure out which one 
> you meant from the argument type and you can worry about other things.  
> Its convenient for some of the same reasons that polymorphism is.

Well, sorta. If you think about it, though, operator overloading in C++ is  
the same as reusing method names in multiple Obj-C classes, which is  
valid. For example, the overloaded C++ method (a+b) really means, "using  
the plus operator, as 'a' class defines it, apply object b to object a".  
In Obj-C, we would simply say [a add:b]. AS LONG AS 'A' AND 'B' ARE BOTH  
OBJECTS, NOT SIMPLE DATA TYPES, you can do anything you want to them  
inside the add: method in any class. Cells, for example, can be queried  
for their values in several ways, and some of AFS's private classes define  
a few more storage types. (For example, a date class might return a  
properly formatted string in response to [date stringValue], but a Julian  
number in response to [date intValue]. But you have to pass around the  
OBJECTS to do this. 

What we have here is a syntactical different between two languages--one  
lets you use the old familiar operators, like + and ==; the other makes  
you use named messages--but the result is the same: overloading. Another  
case where the C++ bigots are spreading misinformation about our beloved  
language.  8^)

--
Gregory H. Anderson          | "We're very tolerant around here,
Benevolent Dictator-for-Life |  being only amateurs ourselves."
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