Polymorphism (computer science) - Wikipedia

In programming languages and type theory, polymorphism is the provision of a single interface to entities of different types[1] or the use of a single symbol to represent multiple different types.[2] Interest in polymorphic type systems developed significantly in the 1960s, with practical implementations beginning to appear by the end of the decade. Ad hoc polymorphism and parametric polymorphism were originally described in Christopher Strachey's Fundamental Concepts in Programming Languages[4], where they are listed as "the two main classes" of polymorphism. Ad hoc polymorphism was a feature of Algol 68, while parametric polymorphism was the core feature of ML's type system. In a 1985 paper, Peter Wegner and Luca Cardelli introduced the term inclusion polymorphism to model subtypes and inheritance,[2] citing Simula as the first programming language to implement it. Christopher Strachey chose the term ad hoc polymorphism to refer to polymorphic functions that can be applied to arguments of different types, but that behave differently depending on the type of the argument to which they are applied (also known as function overloading or operator overloading).[5]