multiple dispatch as dispatch on tuples
Many popular object-oriented programming languages, such as C++, Smalltalk-80, Java, and Eiffel, do not support multiple dispatch. Yet without multiple dispatch, programmers find it difficult to express binary methods and design patterns such as the "visitor" pattern. We describe a new, simple, and orthogonal way to add multimethods to single-dispatch object-oriented languages, without affecting existing code. The new mechanism also clarifies many differences between single and multiple dispatch.
multiple dispatch tuple object-oriented programming language support programmer binary methods method design patterns pattern multimethods code typing generic functions semantics single dispatch smalltalk language design object oriented language