Prototypes with multiple dispatch: An expressive and dynamic object model

Abstract

Two object-oriented programming language paradigms - dynamic, prototype-based languages and multi-method languages - provide orthogonal benefits to software engineers. These two paradigms appear to be in conflict, however, preventing engineers from realizing the benefits of both technologies in one system. This paper introduces a novel object model, prototypes with multiple dispatch (PMD), which seamlessly unifies these two approaches. We give formal semantics for PMD, and discuss implementation and experience with PMD in the dynamically typed programming language Slate. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.