Procedure overloading

[chris hermansen]

Thanks for digging this up, Jose!

On Sat, Jan 17, 2026, 06:53 Jose E. Marchesi <jemarch@gnu.org> wrote:

>
> Chris has wondered more than once: why not procedure overloading?
>
> Turns out Yoneda asked the same at some point in one of the working
> group meetings: why not having procedure overloading like Ada has.
>
> According to Lindsey, the answer was: we want to be able to do widening
> in actual parameters.
>
> Thing is, actual parameters in operator calls are in a firm context.
> But actual parameters in procedure calls are in a strong context.
>
> So the strong coercions wouldn't be available in procedure calls, which
> would be a real pity.
>

I can see why operator actual parameters should not allow widening, because
ultimately all arithmetic on integer actual parameters

But then the only way to experience something like overloaded procedure
names is to use united mode formal parameters.

If we wish to support something like procedures with different length
parameter packs, can we use SKIP to achieve that? Seems to me I saw
something by Lindsey on that topic...

Chris Hermansen · clhermansen "at" gmail "dot" com

C'est ma façon de parler.
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