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- Newsgroups: comp.lang.dylan
- Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!decuac!pa.dec.com!engage.pko.dec.com!nntpd.lkg.dec.com!ktbush.ogo.dec.com!mjg
- From: mjg@ktbush.ogo.dec.com (Michael J. Grier)
- Subject: Fast generic function dispatching?
- Message-ID: <1993Jan12.210144.28757@nntpd.lkg.dec.com>
- Keywords: generic-functions dispatching
- Lines: 20
- Sender: usenet@nntpd.lkg.dec.com (USENET News System)
- Reply-To: mjg@ktbush.ogo.dec.com (Michael J. Grier)
- Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
- Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 21:01:44 GMT
-
-
- Can someone either discuss, or post references to, techniques for
- implementing fast generic function method dispatching? The techniques
- implied by the Dylan manual sound like for every invocation of a generic
- function you have to first filter through all the methods to find a list
- of possible methods which match the parameters, and then sort them, keeping
- the list around, in case a method decides it wants to invoke the next least
- generic method.
-
- This sounds slow, and it just seems to me that one of the goals of Dylan
- was to provide for a large amount of static/compile-time optimization in
- the framework of a dynamic environment. I'm curious if someone has some
- tricks up their sleeve for getting this to be able to occur in constant time.
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
- I'm saying this, not Digital. Don't hold them responsibile for it!
-
- Michael J. Grier Digital Equipment Corporation
- (508) 496-8417 mjg@ktbush.dec.com
- Stow, Mass, USA Mailstop OGO1-1/E16
-