Editing Double dispatch (section)

===== SURFACE =====
Within the polymorphic call to {SURFACE}.draw is the call to an agent, which becomes the second polymorphic call or dispatch in the double-dispatch pattern.

<syntaxhighlight lang="eiffel" line>
	deferred class
		SURFACE
	
	feature {NONE} -- Initialization
	
		make
				-- Initialize Current.
			do
				drawing_agent := agent draw
			end
	
	feature -- Access

		drawing_agent: PROCEDURE [ANY, TUPLE [STRING, STRING]]
				-- Drawing agent of Current.
	
	feature {NONE} -- Implementation
	
		draw (a_data_agent: FUNCTION [ANY, TUPLE, TUPLE [name, color: STRING]])
				-- Draw `a_shape' on Current.
			local
				l_result: TUPLE [name, color: STRING]
			do
				l_result := a_data_agent (Void)
				print ("draw a " + l_result.color + " " + l_result.name + " on " + type + "%N")
			end
	
		type: STRING
				-- Type name of Current.
			deferred end
	
	end
</syntaxhighlight>

The agent argument in line #19 and call in line #24 are both polymorphic and decoupled. The agent is decoupled because the {SURFACE}.draw feature has no idea what class `a_data_agent' is based on. There is no way to tell what class the operation agent was derived from, so it does not have to come from SHAPE or one of its descendants. This is a distinct advantage of Eiffel agents over the single inheritance, dynamic and polymorphic binding of other languages.

The agent is dynamically polymorphic at run-time because the object is created in the moment it is needed, dynamically, where the version of the objectified routine is determined at that time. The only strongly bound knowledge is of the Result type of the agent signature—that is—a named TUPLE with two elements. However, this specific requirement is based on a demand of the enclosing feature (e.g. line #25 uses the named elements of the TUPLE to fulfill `draw' feature of SURFACE), which is necessary and has not been avoided (and perhaps cannot be).

Finally, note how only the `drawing_agent' feature is exported to ANY client! This means that the visitor pattern code (who is the ONLY client of this class) only needs to know about the agent to get its job done (e.g. using the agent as the feature applied to the visited objects).