Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.object
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From: Charles Fiterman <cef@geodesic.com>
Subject: Re: [Q] Multiple Inheritance
Message-ID: <1995Jan31.141406.22032@midway.uchicago.edu>
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Organization: Geodesic Systems
References: <JKVG.95Jan29195005@kamet.ccs.neu.edu> <1995Jan30.234820.5752@rcmcon.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 14:14:06 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.lang.smalltalk:20111 comp.object:25867

To be really usefull multiple inheritance needs reflexivity. Inherit
from class persistant, oh ... we have to cahnge how instances are
instantiated, create indices, alter access. 

Multimethods are not required but they improve readability vastly.
A multimethod is a method of several classes. Using reflexivity
to alter method lookup puts your classes on the same basis as
the base classes of the language (assuming they exist).

This leaves two choices CLOS with its ugly Lisp syntax and Cecil
which is experimental. And people ask "Why develop new languages?"


