polymorphism w/out signatures?

Hung Jung Lu hungjunglu at yahoo.com
Fri May 7 22:34:51 EDT 2004


pugnatio2 at yahoo.com wrote in message news:<997a06e0.0405071007.3b903c7b at posting.google.com>...
> Thanks to all who replied. I think I've got it straight now, and by
> the way I did use "polymorphism" incorrectly; I should have said
> "method overloading."

You did not make a mistake. Others did.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymorphism_(computer_science)

In terms of code factorization, polymorphism simply means
"factorization of a name". Same name, different code. The actual code
used is decided by some underlying/implicit mechanism.

Anything that fits the criterion "same name, different code" can be
called polymorphism. It can be applied to data or functions/methods
alike.

"Polymorphism" itself means several things. In a sense, the term
itself is polymorhic: same word, several meanings. The precise meaning
depends on context. If you understand this last part, you understand
polymorphism. :)

regards,

Hung Jung



More information about the Python-list mailing list