seeking ideas for short lecture on type classes

Fergus Henderson fjh@cs.mu.OZ.AU
Mon, 27 Jan 2003 20:37:06 +1100


On 26-Jan-2003, Dean Herington <heringto@cs.unc.edu> wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Jan 2003, Norman Ramsey wrote:
> 
> > A fact that I know but don't understand the implication of is that
> > Haskell dispatches on the static type of a value, whereas OO languages
> > dispatch on the dynamic type of a value.  But I suspect I'll leave
> > that out :-)
> 
> Perhaps I misunderstand, but I would suggest that "fact" is, if not 
> incorrect, at least oversimplified.

I agree.  The above characterization is highly misleading.  It would be
more accurate and informative to say that both Haskell and OO languages
dispatch on the dynamic type of a value.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <fjh@cs.mu.oz.au>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
The University of Melbourne         |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.