Prototype-based programming is a style of object-oriented programming in which classes are not present, and behavior reuse (known as inheritance in class-based languages) is performed via a process of cloning existing objects that serve as prototypes. This model can also be known as class-less, prototype-oriented or instance-based programming.
The original (and most canonical) example of a prototype-based language is the programming language Self developed by David Ungar and Randall Smith. However, the classless programming style has recently grown increasingly popular, and has been adopted for the programming languages JavaScript, Squeak (when using the Viewer framework to manipulate Morphic components), Cecil, NewtonScript, Io, MOO, REBOL and several others.
Last update: 2008-05-05 14:46:44 Prototype-based | Copyright 2008 HubHip.com>