polymorphism

3 definitions found

polymorphism - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Polymorphism \Pol`y*mor"phism\, n.
     1. (Crystallog.) Same as Pleomorphism.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Biol.)
        (a) The capability of assuming different forms; the
            capability of widely varying in form.
        (b) Existence in many forms; the coexistence, in the same
            locality, of two or more distinct forms independent of
            sex, not connected by intermediate gradations, but
            produced from common parents.
            [1913 Webster]

polymorphism - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  polymorphism
      n 1: (genetics) the genetic variation within a population that
           natural selection can operate on
      2: (chemistry) the existence of different kinds of crystal of
         the same chemical compound [syn: polymorphism,
         pleomorphism]
      3: (biology) the existence of two or more forms of individuals
         within the same animal species (independent of sex
         differences)

polymorphism - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  polymorphism
  parametric polymorphism
  polymorphic
  
     <theory, programming> A concept first identified by
     Christopher Strachey (1967) and developed by Hindley and
     Milner, allowing types such as list of anything.  E.g. in
     Haskell:
  
     	length :: [a] -> Int
  
     is a function which operates on a list of objects of any type,
     a (a is a type variable).  This is known as parametric
     polymorphism.  Polymorphic typing allows strong type checking
     as well as generic functions.  ML in 1976 was the first
     language with polymorphic typing.
  
     Ad-hoc polymorphism (better described as overloading) is the
     ability to use the same syntax for objects of different types,
     e.g. "+" for addition of reals and integers or "-" for unary
     negation or diadic subtraction.  Parametric polymorphism
     allows the same object code for a function to handle arguments
     of many types but overloading only reuses syntax and requires
     different code to handle different types.
  
     See also generic type variable.
  
     In object-oriented programming, the term is used to describe
     a variable that may refer to objects whose class is not
     known at compile time and which respond at run time
     according to the actual class of the object to which they
     refer.
  
     (2002-08-08)