Multiple dispatch with external methods isn't a 'feature' of Julia, it is the central organizing principle that the whole language is built on. And among everyo

Multiple dispatch with external methods isn't a 'feature' of Julia, it is the central organizing principle that the whole language is built on. And among everyone who actually uses the language there is consensus that it is what makes it good. Sorry to hear that you failed to implement it back in the day, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with multiple dispatch in and of itself. It's just hard to get right. But when it works, it is without doubt the best paradigm for a language that I can think of. BTW, optional arguments are not 'absent' in Julia, they are absolutely present, and are, in fact, implemented using multiple dispatch.