Is it possible to overload operators in Smalltalk?
I am looking for tutorials/examples.
Thanks.
Is it possible to overload operators in Smalltalk? I am looking for tutorials/examples. Thanks.
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Is it possible to overload operators in Smalltalk?
I am looking for tutorials/examples.
Thanks.
Method overloading is not possible in Smalltalk. Instead, a combination of method overriding and a technique called double dispatch is used to implement the same behavior as operator overloading in other languages.
You can find an example implementation in the mathematical operators
+,*,/,-(which are binary messages in Smalltalk). Here is the idea: the implementation ofInteger>>+sends a message#addWithInteger:to its argument. The implementation of#addWithInteger:is implemented on each Magnitude subclass, such as to specialize addition of Int+Int, Float+Int, etc…