Object-Oriented Programming A Unified Foundation

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Background and notation

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 3-33

   3. A quick overview

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 35-76

3. Simple Typing

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 77-77

      PDF

   2. Object-oriented programming

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 79-111

   3. The λ&-calculus

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 113-151

   4. Covariance and contravariance: conflict without a cause

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 153-166

   5. Strong Normalization

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 167-176

   6. Three variations on the theme

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 177-191

   7. Interpretation of object-oriented languages

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 193-220

   8. Imperative features and other widgets

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 221-233

   9. Semantics

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 235-258

4. Second order

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 259-259

      PDF

   2. Introduction to part III

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 261-273

   3. Second order overloading

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 275-311

   4. Second order overloading and object-oriented programming

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 313-322

   5. Conclusion

      • Giuseppe Castagna

      Pages 323-327

5. Back Matter

   Pages 329-366

   PDF

by Luea Cardelli Ever since Strachey's work in the 1960's, polymorphism has been classified into the parametric and overloading varieties. Parametric polymorphism has been the subject of extensive study for over two decades. Overloading, on the other hand, has often been considered too ad hoc to deserve much attention even though it has been, in some form, an ingredient of virtually every programming lan­ guage (much more so than parametric polymorphism). With the introduction of object-oriented languages, and in particular with multiple-dispatch object-oriented languages, overloading has become less of a programming convenience and more of a fundamental feature in need of proper explanation. This book provides a compelling framework for the study of run-time over­ loading and of its interactions with subtyping and with parametric polymorphism. The book also describes applications to object-oriented programming. This new framework is motivated by the relatively recent spread of programming languages that are entirely based on run-time overloading; this fact probably explains why this subject was not investigated earlier. Once properly understood, overloading reveals itself relevant also to the study of older and more conventional (single­ dispatch) object-oriented languages, clarifying delicate issues of covariance and contravariance of method types, and of run-time type analysis. In the final chapters, a synthesis is made between parametric and overloading polymorphism.

• Inform
• algorithms
• class
• object
• object-oriented programming
• overloading
• polymorphism
• programming

• CNRS, LIENS, Paris, France

  Giuseppe Castagna

Policies and ethics