The collected works of Craig Chambers ( was: Multi-Methods ... )

Steven D. Majewski (sdm7g@elvis.med.virginia.edu)
Sun, 5 Jun 1994 22:35:08 -0400

On Jun 5, 11:38, Marc Wachowitz wrote:
>
> Remark for those being interested in multi-methods (independently of the
> discussion about Python): I recommend looking at Craig Chambers' work on
> the language Cecil; much of it is also applicable to other languages. He
> investigates how some nice properties of OOP, like abstraction, or being
> able to have Smalltalk-like browsers, would be applicable in the context
> of multi-methods. Basically he argues that MMs "belong" into all classes
> for which they specialize, generalizing the "receiver" of Smalltalk-like
> models. The papers are available for anonymous ftp at cs.washington.edu,
> in directory /pub/chambers.
>

( To change the subject slightly: )
Craig Chambers also wrote a paper on "Predicate Classes" -- an
instance for which a given set of predicates is TRUE is defined
to be a member of that Predicate Class -- which recalls an old
Python thread I started once about declaring things to be 'Numeric'
or a 'Sequence' as a shorthand for stating that not only does the
class support all of the required methods, but it also supports
them with a reasonable semantics.

( And I know I've mentioned before that I would like to try
to figure out how to add Self-like method specializations and
optimizations to Python. )

There's probably a few other good ideas to be mined from Chambers'
papers!

BTW: Thanks, Mark, for directing the discussion AWAY from
whitespace/block-delimiters syntax to something more interesting! ;-)

- Steve Majewski (804-982-0831) <sdm7g@Virginia.EDU>
- UVA Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics