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Prothon - A New Prototype-based Language

Posted by michael on from the amateurthon-coming-next-week dept.

Ben Collins writes "Prothon is a new industrial-strength, interpreted, prototype-based, object-oriented language that gets rid of classes altogether in the way that the Self language does. It uses the sensible, practical syntax and add-on C module scheme from Python. This major prototype improvement over Python plus many other general improvements make for a clean new revolutionary breakthrough in language development. Prothon is simple to use and yet offers the combined power of Python and Self. Check out the first public pre-alpha release at prothon.org."

10 of 630 comments (clear)

  1. Here we go.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    with the "witty" names again. Anyway, can someone explain to me how eliminating classes is better? I thought that implementing classes, the OOP approach, was the better way to go.

    They don't really explain why their way is better. They just state it as though it was a matter of fact.

    Make your vote count

    1. Re:Here we go.... by orangenormal · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Prototype languages still hold many of the OO concepts, but objects are created directly. That is, a "blueprint" approach (i.e., the class) is not used in the creation of objects. Inheritance still works by cloning and modifying existing objects. Although this makes sense in some ways (ideas like the Singleton pattern fit more nicely in this paradigm), in reality prototype languages gain features that make them more and more class-like. I'm not a big fan, personally.

  2. Bondage by spellraiser · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is taken from the Prothon Description

    Like Python, Prothon uses indentation to control the block structure of the program instead of block/end or {}. However, Prothon only allows tabs for indentation. Any space in an indent will cause an error.

    Classic bondage-and-discipline. Why oh why is this so ??

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    I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
  3. Why is there only one database access language? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are sooo many general programming languages but only one database access languages: SQL? SQL is so old, it hurts. It's basically COBOL.

    Ok, there is one additional database access language I know of: NewSQL (http://newsql.sf.net).

    But it seems nobody is really interested in database access. And everybody is interested in all kinds of general programming language. Why is that?

    1. Re:Why is there only one database access language? by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 5, Interesting
      There are sooo many general programming languages but only one database access languages: SQL? SQL is so old, it hurts

      Arabic numbers are old too, but I don't see anyone proposing to change them.

      SQL is an English-like representation of relational calculus. Relational calculus has not, and is not going to, change significantly. When the problem is solved well, there's no need to change the solution.

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      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
  4. even better by swagr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.iolanguage.com/

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  5. Self, Python, and Java by jfengel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah, it's a lot like Self, mixed with Python syntax. Self had a lot of interesting ideas. It never really got out of the starting blocks, but some of its most important ideas in dynamic compilation went on to be included in the Java hotspot compiler.

    Personally, I prefer a bit more bondage-and-discipline in my languages. That's because I like having the compiler tell me what I'm doing wrong as much as possible. It's a side effect of the environments in which I tend to work, with multiple people working on the same code. Strong typing is an important contract in such an environment. But it has a lot of downsides, as every perl and python programmer knows.

    Oh, and dude, if you're going to submit your own damn web site to Slashdot, try getting a sturdier web server first.

  6. There is also Slate. by marcello_dl · · Score: 3, Interesting


    From Slate website:
    Slate is a prototype-based object-oriented programming language based on Self, CLOS, and Smalltalk. Slate syntax is intended to be as familiar as possible to a Smalltalker...

    It also features optional type declaration. The compiler is currently based on Common Lisp.

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  7. Re:Tabs, no classes by maxwell+demon · · Score: 3, Interesting
    In no natural language does the case of a character convey information that cannot be gained from context.


    German:
    "Mein Sohn soll Forscher werden." = "My son shall become a researcher."
    "Mein Sohn soll forscher werden." = "My son shall become more snappy."
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    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  8. check out Lua: prototype-based, mature, popular by hak1du · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you want a nice, clean, prototype-based OO scripting language, check out Lua. Its implementation is mature, it is widely used (a favorite among game developers), and it compiles into compact executables. It also has one of the fastest scripting language interpreters around (short of a JIT). And there are excellent tools for binding C and C++ code to it.