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Polymorphism In Object-oriented Programming
In programming language theory and type theory, polymorphism is the provision of a single interface to entities of different types or the use of a single symbol to represent multiple different types.: "Polymorphic types are types whose operations are applicable to values of more than one type." The concept is borrowed from a principle in biology where an organism or species can have many different forms or stages. The most commonly recognized major classes of polymorphism are: * ''Ad hoc polymorphism'': defines a common interface for an arbitrary set of individually specified types. * ''Parametric polymorphism'': not specifying concrete types and instead use abstract symbols that can substitute for any type. * ''Subtyping'' (also called ''subtype polymorphism'' or ''inclusion polymorphism''): when a name denotes instances of many different classes related by some common superclass. History Interest in polymorphic type systems developed significantly in the 1960s, with practic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Programming Language Theory
Programming language theory (PLT) is a branch of computer science that deals with the design, implementation, analysis, characterization, and classification of formal languages known as programming languages. Programming language theory is closely related to other fields including mathematics, software engineering, and linguistics. There are a number of academic conferences and journals in the area. History In some ways, the history of programming language theory predates even the development of programming languages themselves. The lambda calculus, developed by Alonzo Church and Stephen Cole Kleene in the 1930s, is considered by some to be the world's first programming language, even though it was intended to ''model'' computation rather than being a means for programmers to ''describe'' algorithms to a computer system. Many modern functional programming languages have been described as providing a "thin veneer" over the lambda calculus, and many are easily described in te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
