There are already polymorphic methods in ocaml. The syntax for your example would be:
class myobject = object method id : 'a. 'a -> 'a = fun x -> x end A "polymorphic" keyword might seem simpler, but it would be complex to handle the case where a polymorphic method type contains also class parameters: class ['a] cell (x : 'a) = object method pair : 'b. 'b -> 'a * 'b = fun y -> (x,y) end More generally, you might end up with types more polymorphic than you expected, and since differently instantiated polymorphic method types are incompatible, this would be a problem. Jacques Garrigue From: Guillaume Yziquel <guillaume.yziq...@citycable.ch> > When developing with objects in OCaml, I'm quite often faced with > polymorphic methods. > > Such as: > > class myobject = object > method id x = x > end > > Sometimes you have many methods that you're tinkling with, and the > compiler keeps saying to you that 'a is inbound in this class > declaration. > > I'm therefore wondering if it would be a good idea to have a keyword > 'polymorphic', and one would write > > class myobject = object > polymorphic method id x = x > end > > The polymorphic keyword would be a hint that the method is polymorphic > and that there is no need to look at the class' type parameters. > > -- > Guillaume Yziquel > http://yziquel.homelinux.org/ _______________________________________________ Caml-list mailing list. Subscription management: http://yquem.inria.fr/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/caml-list Archives: http://caml.inria.fr Beginner's list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ocaml_beginners Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs
