Abstract

We present a simple extension of typed -calculus where functions can be overloaded by putting different "branches of code" together. When the function is applied, the branch to execute is chosen according to a particular selection rule which depends on the type of the argument. The crucial feature of the present approach is that the branch selection depends on the "run-time type" of the argument, which may differ from its compile-time type, because of the existence of a subtyping relation among types. Hence overloading cannot be eliminated by a static analysis of code, but is an essential feature to be dealt with during computation. We obtain in this way a type-dependent calculus, which differs from the various -calculi where types do not play any role during computation. We prove Confluence and a generalized Subject-Reduction theorem for this calculus. We prove Strong Normalization for a "stratified" subcalculus. The definition of this calculus is guided by the understand...

Citations