Scala implicits are very powerfull. I'm curious if they are a new/unique feature of Scala, or the concept already existed in other programming languages.
Thanks.
EDIT:
To clarify my question, yes, I'm talking about this concrete implementation. Having "implicit things" all around seemed strange at first, but having used it for a while and seeing how others use it, I'm impressed by how well it works.
The implicit system in Scala allows the compiler to adjust code using a well-defined lookup mechanism. A programmer in Scala can leave out information that the compiler will attempt to infer at compile time. The Scala compiler can infer one of two situations: A method call or constructor with a missing parameter.
Looks like the inspiration was Haskell's type classes. At least one blog article claims that implicits have their origin in Haskell type classes; the article refers to a 2006 paper by Martin Odersky entitled, Poor Man's Type Classes. And Daniel Sobral wrote a recent article on how to simulate type classes with implicits.
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