Could Python supplant Java?

[Paul Foley]

On Fri, 23 Aug 2002 04:12:48 -0700, James J Besemer wrote:

> Paul Foley wrote:

>> On Wed, 21 Aug 2002 06:22:24 -0700, James J Besemer wrote:
>> 
>> > Some more zealous sources claim that "polymorphism" and other OOP
>> > techniques are impossible with early binding and thus require late
>> > binding to make it possible.  This is bullshit.
>> 
>> Assuming the "this" that you say is bullshit is not self-referential
>> (like "this statement is false"), please explain how it can be done.

> C++ implements polymorphism in two ways.

> First off, since all variables have a known type, most member references can
> be directly resolved by knowing the object type and member name.  In the case
> of name clashes, the ambiguity is resolved by using the most recent
> declaration.

>      class A {
>          int x;
>          int bar(){...}
>      };

>      class B : A {
>          int y;
>          int bar(){...}
>      };

>      void foo( A a ){
>          a.x;
>          a.bar();    // calls A.bar()
>      }

Yes, I know.  But if you pass it a B instance, it ought to call
B.bar(), not A.bar().  What C++ does is Just Plain Wrong.

No sign of polymorphism there.

You only get polymorphism if you declare your member functions to be
"virtual", in which case it does late binding -- which is no help to
your argument that you don't need late binding for polymorphism.

> be distinguished if they have different argument lists.  a.bar() is
> unambiguous but b.bar() is not.  b.bar() is resolved in favor of the most
> recent declaration.  There's a scope resolution operator to override
> defaults.

In other words, there's no polymorphism; you have to dispatch to the
right place manually...assuming you can even know what the right place
will be.

> This is all completely static.

Yes.  Also completely lacking in polymorphism, so what was the point?

> To handle the more dynamic case C++ uses 'virtual' functions.  This allows a
> function to access functions in subclasses it doesn't know exists.
> Declarations are like before except for the addition of a 'virtual' keyword:

Exactly so.  Polymorphism requires late binding (except in special
cases, as discussed previously)

> [Implementation details are an exercise for the reader.]  However, I will
> point out that there is no Python- or Smalltalk- like dictionary lookup at
> runtime.

And just what do you think your C++ vtable lookup is?

> So you can have 'true' Polymorphism without late binding.

You've failed to demonstrate that.  You had to resort to late binding,
via `virtual', to get polymorphism in C++

-- 
For þæm se þe his cræft forlætt, se bið fram þæm cræfte forlæten.
                                                                -- Ælfric
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