Network objects

Manuel M T Chakravarty chak@cse.unsw.edu.au
Tue, 19 Nov 2002 15:33:26 +1100 (EST)


"Garner, Robin" <Robin.Garner@crsrehab.gov.au> wrote,

> > BTW, those typed returns on sockets that Shawn mentioned sounded
> > interesting. IIRC Modula-3 also had some approach to worrying about data
> > exchange between older and newer versions of the same program.
> 
> Modula-3 (actually the Network Objects library) used subtyping to handle
> this.  Successive versions of an interface are declared as subtypes of the
> previous version, and the type system will resolve a network object binding
> to the appropriate version.  
> 
> Hard to see how this could be done in a purely functional setting.

I don't know any of the details of the Modula-3 solution,
but maybe type classes could be pressed into realising
something similar.

Manuel