![[Home]](http://www.bayleshanks.com/cartoonbayle.png)
foundart 3 days ago
| link |
I see the Julia home page lists multiple dispatch as one of its benefits. Since my only real exposure to multiple dispatch was when I inherited some CLOS code where it was used to create a nightmare of spaghetti, I'm wondering if any Julia fans here would care to elaborate on how they've used multiple dispatch for Good™ instead of Evil™
reply
astrieanna 2 days ago
| link |
Multiple dispatch lets you make math operators work like they do in path. That means that you can use `+` the same way on ints, floats, matrices, and your own self-defined numeric type. If `x` is a variable of your new numeric type, OO languages make making `x + 5` work easy, but `5 + x` super hard. Multiple dispatch makes both cases (equally) easy. This was, as I understand it, the major reason that Julia uses multiple dispatch.
Multiple dispatch can make interfaces simpler: you can easily offer several "versions" of a function by changing which arguments they take, and you can define those functions where it makes sense, even if those places are spread across multiple modules or packages. Julia provides great tools (functions) that make methods discoverable, help you understand which method you're calling, and help you find the definition of methods.
Looking at some Julia code (the base library or major packages) might give you a better idea of how Julia uses multiple dispatch.
--
