Multi-method dispatch using multiple row displacement

Abstract

Multiple Row Displacement (MRD) is a new dispatch technique for multi-method languages. It is based on compressing an n-dimensional table using an extension of the single-receiver row displacement mechanism. This paper presents the new algorithm and provides experimental results that compare it with implementations of existing techniques: compressed n-dimensional tables, look-up automata and single-receiver projection. MRD uses comparable space to the other techniques, but has faster dispatch performance.