Section 10.8. CONCLUSION

10.8. CONCLUSION

In this chapter, we discussed mixins and mixin layers, and we described how mixin layers implement reusable software components. We summarized an evaluation in which custom GUI libraries are generated using mixin layers. We also described supplemental language support that makes mixin programming easier and more effective.

Additionally, we made two proposals concerning parametric types and mixins. Our first proposal brings together two lines of mixin research by defining partially instantiated parametric types as types. Our second proposal bridges the gap between homogeneous and heterogeneous implementations of parametric polymorphism by giving programmers the choice of implementation when they define parametric types.