Making generic functions useable in Smalltalk

ABSTRACT

There have traditionally been two approaches to object orientation with respect to defining code to operate on objects. The first and more common one is message passing. The other is generic functions which use multiple dispatch (also known as multimethods). While Smalltalk provides one of the simplest implementations of a message passing system, there are some circumstances where generic functions provide a more concise solution to the problem. The goals of this project are two-fold: first, to take a look at how to implement generic functions in Smalltalk alongside the existing message passing system, and secondly, to look into how to nicely integrate the infrastructure for creating generic functions into the Squeak programming environment.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.3 Language Constructs and Features

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.6 Programming Environments

Keywords:
Smalltalk, generic functions, multimethods, multiple dispatch, programming environments, squeak