Sunday, June 05, 2005

Prototype Eureka

I've been reading a ton of articles on prototype-based programming. I even bought Prototype-Based Programming: Concepts, Languages and Applications which is an excellent introduction to the subject. So, I was thinking prototypes are a great idea, but I had some reservations since I have been so long in the class-based camp and prototypes are radical. I had basic questions of like how do I organize my programs now? Well, I found "Organizing Programs Without Classes". What an amazing read. It answered all of my questions and gave me my first "Eureka!" moment in prototype-based programming. It all feels so liberating! I can't wait to get my laptop back and continuing my studies of Self and Io!

4 comments:

Patrick Logan said...

Blaine,

Another good foundational paper is Using Prototypical Objects
to Implement Shared Behavior
in Object Oriented Systems
. It is a bit more expository than Ungar's. (These are my two favorites for programming with prototypes.)

Anonymous said...

Don't forget to check out Slate, as well.

Blaine Buxton said...

Thanks, Patrick! I loved that article too. I'm loving the delegation model of prototypes over inheritance. It's so liberating! I can't wait to get my laptop back and start playing around!

Blaine Buxton said...

Funny you should mention Slate because I've been looking at it as well. I like the fact that it's been bootstrapped in Squeak. It will be fun to explore as well! I need my laptop!