[Python-Dev] A thought on generic functions

[Neil Toronto]

Greg Ewing wrote:
> Paul Moore wrote:
>> I'd rather see a solution which addressed the
>> wider visitor use case (I think I just sprained my back bending over
>> backwards to avoid mentioning generic functions :-))
> 
> Speaking of generic functions, while thinking about the
> recent discussion on proxy objects, it occurred to me
> that this is something you can do with an OO system
> that you can't do so easily with a generic function
> system. If the operations being proxied were generic
> functions rather than methods, you'd have to override
> them all individually instead of having a central point
> to catch them all.

It depends on your dispatch rules. Say the implementation orders the 
candidates lexically (like default CLOS). This is equivalent to choosing 
as first candidates the set of functions with the most specific first 
argument. Resolution for a generic function call and generic method call 
are semantically the same, so there's no reason not to have the latter, 
and proxying by __getattr__ tricks becomes doable again.

Neil