This is sad. If only people would take the Expression Problem[1] more seriously and realise that there is a good time to use ifs/pattern matching and a good time to use polymorphism/function arguments
I think CLOS doesn't suffer from the expression problem. Both alterations to the data model can be implemented as a "patch" to the program without editing any of the original code.
Gah, do you know if there is a better name for this "pattern matching vs polymorphism" duality then? I think its still important in its own right since multimethods and other solutions to the expression problem usually apply to a more global-ish scope, unlike pattern matching and functions since those are primitive constructs and naturally nested as deep as you want.
Comments
This is sad. If only people would take the Expression Problem[1] more seriously and realise that there is a good time to use ifs/pattern matching and a good time to use polymorphism/function arguments
[1] http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ExpressionProblem
I think CLOS doesn't suffer from the expression problem. Both alterations to the data model can be implemented as a "patch" to the program without editing any of the original code.
Gah, do you know if there is a better name for this "pattern matching vs polymorphism" duality then? I think its still important in its own right since multimethods and other solutions to the expression problem usually apply to a more global-ish scope, unlike pattern matching and functions since those are primitive constructs and naturally nested as deep as you want.