Use invokedynamic to implement multiple dispatch

Question

I wondered if Java7\'s new invokedynamic bytecode instruction could be used to implement multiple dispatch for the Java language. Would the new API under java.lang.

Answer 1

Since I have no experience with invokedynamic, I do not know how good the performance and type-safety would be, but can only give some pointers:

• the Da Vinci Machine Project offers multiple dispatch via invokedynamic (see Multiple Dispatch/src/invokedynamicmultipledispatch/);
• Charles Oliver Natter has talked about applications of invokedynamic on JAX2012. The slides do not go into details at all, but I think I came across more details in a video or podcast talking about JAX2012, which I cannot find right now.
• Christopher Dutchyn's JVM Multiple Dispatch is an alternative approach without invokedynamic. His COOTS '01 Paper and these slides have a lot of performance information/benchmarking (and are a good read after you've finished your disseration ;)