Static Type Checking of Multi-Methods

Abstract

Multi-methods allow method selection to be based on the types of any number of arguments.Languages that currently support multi-methods do not support static type checking.We show how multi-methods can be statically type checked and how information collected at the time of program compilation can be used to make the run-time dispatch of multi-methods more efficient.The results presented can provide the basis for introducing multi-methods in languages with static type checking and for designing new object-oriented paradigms based on multi-methods. 'The exact syntax is different in C++;we have taken liberty with the syntax to clarify the point.