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Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 07:32:35 +0200
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Subject: Re: [PHP-DEV] Re: Multi-Method Dispatch in PHP 5.1?
From: cm@leetspeak.org (Michael Walter)

Christian Schneider wrote:
> Sebastian Bergmann wrote:
> 
>>   Since we introduce class type hints in PHP 5.0 I think it would be a
>>   good thing [tm] to add multi-method dispatch in PHP 5.1.
> 
> 
> Actually I think multi-method dispatching for PHP is A Bad Thing[tm].
> 
> Multi-method dispatching is necessary for statically checked, inflexible 
> languages without default parameters like Java.
That's probably why Common Lisp, a language way more dynamic than PHP, 
provides you with a complete implementation of multiple dispatch. How 
exactly do you think are default parameters related to the issue, anyway?

> PHP has other means of handling the most common problems this tries to solve and having two 
> methods of the same name is more confusing than helping IMHO.
I assume you are you aware of what dynamic dispatch is trying to solve 
-- could you give an example of the 'other means' you are referring to?

Cheers,
Michael