A note on covariance and contravariance unification

1 January 1996

journal article
Published by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in ACM SIGPLAN Notices

Vol. 31 (1) , 32-35
https://doi.org/10.1145/249094.249111

Abstract

Viewing functions with arguments as defining attribute spaces leads to a consistent extension of the conventional object-oriented type system as well as suggesting a more general dispatching strategy which unites the covariant and contravariant views of function subtyping. These views are properties of a function definition, rather than mutually exclusive constraints.

Keywords

CONSISTENT EXTENSION
DEFINING ATTRIBUTE SPACE
CONTRAVARIANCE
CONTRAVARIANT VIEW
ATTRIBUTE SPACES
COVARIANCE
CONTRAVARIANCE UNIFICATION
FUNCTION SUBTYPING
EXCLUSIVE CONSTRAINT
FUNCTION DEFINITION
CONVENTIONAL OBJECT-ORIENTED TYPE SYSTEM
VIEWING FUNCTION
MULTIMETHODS
TYPE SYSTEM
OBJECT ORIENTED

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:

Foundations of Object-Oriented Languages
ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 1995