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polymorphism |
3 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Polymorphism \Pol`y*mor"phism\, n. 1. (Crystallog.) Same as {Pleomorphism}. 2. (Biol.) a The capability of assuming different forms; the capability of widely varying in form b Existence in many forms; the coexistence, in the same locality, of two or more distinct forms independent of sex, not connected by intermediate gradations, but produced from common parents. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: polymorphism n 1: (chemistry) the existence of different kinds of crystal of the same chemical compound [syn: {pleomorphism}] 2: the existence of two or more forms of individuals within the same species (independent of sex differences) From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (13 Mar 01) [foldoc]: polymorphism A concept first identified by Christopher Strachey (1967) and developed by Hindley and Milner, allowing types such as list of anything E.g. in {Haskell}: length :: [a] -> Int is a function which operates on a list of objects of any type a (a is a type variable). This is known as parametric polymorphism. Polymorphic typing allows strong type checking as well as generic functions. {ML} in 1976 was the first language with polymorphic typing. Ad-hoc polymorphism (better described as {overloading}) is the ability to use the same syntax for objects of different types, e.g. "+" for addition of reals and integers or "-" for unary negation or diadic subtraction. Parametric polymorphism allows the same object code for a function to handle arguments of many types but overloading only reuses syntax and requires different code to handle different types. See also {generic type variable}. In {object-oriented programming}, the term is used to describe variables which may refer at run-time to objects of different {class}es.
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