Talk:polymorphism

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word Talk:polymorphism. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word Talk:polymorphism, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say Talk:polymorphism in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word Talk:polymorphism you have here. The definition of the word Talk:polymorphism will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofTalk:polymorphism, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

The explanation of the fourth meaning (in computer science) is quite wrong, or at least misleading.

First of all, it is not limited to object-oriented programming (nor object-oriented languages), and second, "true" polymorphism does not involve (or require) separate implementations ("definitions") of a function for different types, the latter referred to as "overloading". (The compiler may in fact generate different implementations though.)

Polymorphism is a concept of Type Theory, and most functional programming languages also directly support it. Polymorphism as a programming concept or style can even be applied in programs written in languages like, say, C, although it is not really a feature of the programming language itself. (Besides functions, data types or structures can be polymorphic as well, like usually any container type, e.g. a list of something.)

I know this is not Wikipedia... ;-)

77.185.55.230 16:14, 8 July 2011 (UTC)Reply