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by jcelerier 2788 days ago
> My point is, this mismatch between how flexible the technique we're using is versus how much flexibility we actually need

well, most of the software I use every day have some sort of plug-in interface which is done at some point by loading a .dll at runtime and getting derived instances of a base type defined in the host app.
2 comments
phaedrus 2788 days ago
That's a very good point. It might be question of high versus low level. From a video I watched today (the rest of the video is worth watching, too, but the following stand-alone quote is apropos): "Polymorphism and interfaces have to be kept under control. I don't believe that their role is in a very low level system like interpolating a couple of numbers in the animations, but they have their place in high level systems, in client facing APIs. They are amazing if you do a type of plug in and you really need some type of dynamic polymorphism."

https://youtu.be/yy8jQgmhbAU?list=WL&t=2553

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blt 2788 days ago
For sure, this is one of the legitimate uses of runtime vtable-based polymorphism. But it's also unnecessary if you assume the user is able to recompile the program.
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