[barahilia]

As explained in the post, function call is a full expression for which appropriate function should be found. If there 2 functions with the same name and param types it would be impossible to compile such an expression in its own.

[masklinn]

Not necessarily, you'd just need a syntactic mechanism to disambiguate.

[samatman]

And have one, since Java either throws away the return value, or assigns it to a variable the type of which is known.

Edit: here's the edge case though. You can call a function and use the return value directly as a parameter: foo(bar()). It's possible to have two foo that take both possible bar return types, at which point the compiler is stuck.

It could require a cast in this instance, however. The more I think about this the more I wonder why this isn't possible.

[masklinn]

> here's the edge case though.

That's no more an edge case than the cases where you throw away the return value or you're binding to an ambiguous type e.g. `A getFoo()`, `B getFoo()`, `Object foo = getFoo()`.

> The more I think about this the more I wonder why this isn't possible.

The Java spec does not say, for C++ Stroustrup states it's

> to keep resolution for an individual operator or function call context-independent.

the Java reason is likely also some sort of Principle of Least Surprise claim.