[E-Lang] Coming Attractions: Java Overload Resolution

[Bill Frantz]

At 8:32 AM -0800 3/24/01, Mark S. Miller wrote:
>... starting with E 0.8.9t, E will now correctly
>implements a much less irritating but still unsurprising spec.  (Thanks to
>MarcS for help figuring out the new spec.) The new spec is that if the
>argument list is compatible with exactly one of the overloaded parameter
>lists, then that method is executed.  Otherwise an exception is thrown.
>
>...
>
>Note: For those writing new Java code with E in mind, it's still recommended
>to overload only on arity, not on type.  There's a significant new overhead
>to doing the runtime type-based overload resolution, while the
>non-overloaded case should now be a bit faster.
>
>Does this new rule seem strictly superior and unproblematic to everyone?
>What does JPython do?

What happens if maintenance to the Java code adds new methods with
additional subclasses for a parameter.  It may be that E code that worked
with the old Java code now finds two methods which are "acceptable" and
gets an exception.

Cheers - Bill


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