A 'Python like' language

Daniel Ellison daniel at syrinx.net
Fri Mar 26 17:09:04 EST 2004


"David MacQuigg" <dmq at gain.com> wrote in message
news:o59960pt4nirvqjea79so494rtevc6mt8e at 4ax.com...
> On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 16:42:54 +0000, Peter Hickman
> <peter at semantico.com> wrote:
>
> >Well after all this discussion it would appear that a 'Python like'
> >language has appeared => Prothon. http://www.prothon.org/index.html
> >
> >Very alpha, sort of like Python (if you consider the indenting is what
> >makes Python unique) and sort of Ruby in its use of prefixes to define
> >scoping etc (although there is no reference to this trait being borrowed
> >from Ruby). It also quotes Self as being an influence.
>
> What I found most interesting about this language is that it *doesn't
> use classes* !!  All objects are derived directly from other objects,
> some of which are "prototypes", that is, objects which were designed
> to be just templates to produce other objects.
>
> I downloaded the interpreter, and it installed flawlessly on my XP
> machine!  I ran through the examples from their webpage, and they
> worked as shown!  As I am generating objects from prototypes, I am
> thinking - How can this be so simple?  Surely we must need classes for
> something.  What about static methods?  Is all of this just cruft in
> Python?
>
> The torture never stops. :>)
>
> -- Dave
>

That's what I love about prototype-based languages: they're just so simple.
Class-based language suffer from the meta-class complication, where in
Prothon (or in Self, or JavaScript, or Io, etc.) this is a non-issue.

If the Prothon people can somehow convert the Python libraries, we'll have a
very interesting situation...

Daniel Ellison





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