[kkoncevicius]

True, but in R (at least in S3) it's probably avoided by design because of default parameters. A short example:

  genericfun.type1 <- function(x, sub=1) x - sub
  genericfun.type2 <- function(x, y)     sum(x, y)

The single case can be differentiated:

  genericfun(x)

But which function are we calling with:

  genericfun(x, y)

I don't know about Julia and how it solves this. Maybe by not allowing to pass nameless optional arguments.

[disgruntledphd2]

S4 can dispatch on multiple arguments, just like Julia (though it seems a lot more natural in Julia).