Introduction to OOP -- Timothy Budd -- Chapter 10 Study Guide

An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming

By Timothy Budd

Study Guide for Chapter 10

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

Describe the difference between static and dynamic typing, and some of the advantages and disadvantages of the two techniques.
Describe the difference between static and dynamic method binding, and how this concept is distinguished from static and dynamic typing.

Study Questions

You may wish to use the print or save as command on your web browser to produce a copy of this study guide. That way you can fill in the answers to the questions as part of your assimilating the information you learn in this chapter.

What is a binding time? Give examples of a few different binding times.
What does it mean to say a programming language is statically typed? What are some advantages of a statically typed language?
What is a static class? How does it differ from a dynamic class?
What does it mean to say a programming language is dynamically typed? What are some advantages of a dynamically typed language?
Why is the principle of substitutability not a relevant concept in dynamically typed programming languages?
What is the problem of reverse polymorphism?
What is dynamic method binding, and how does it differ from dynamic typing?
In which of the programming languages studied is it possible to take a value and determine its dynamic class?
In which languages is it possible to perform reverse polymorphism; that is, take a value from a parent class and assign it to a variable declared as an instance of a child class? Why is this not an issue in dynamically typed languages. In the languages in which it is permitted, how can it be performed in a type-safe manner (that is, ensuring that type errors can not occur)?
What are some of the arguments in favor of static binding and against dynamic binding? In favor of dynamic binding and against static binding?