When developing an object-oriented system, at some time a choice has to be made for an actual programming language or environment. It goes without saying that the optimal environment will be one that is in accord with the method chosen for design. Naturally, other desiderata (involving efficiency, portability or client-imposed constraints) may play an equally significant role.

Object-oriented programming languages

the object paradigm
language design dimensions
classless prototypes
meta-level architectures

Additional keywords and phrases: programming languages, orthogonality, reliability, complexity, types, delegation, multiple paradigms, prototypes, reflection

slide: Object-oriented programming languages

This chapter will present an overview of the numerous languages that exist for object-oriented development. A comparison of Smalltalk, Eiffel, C++ and Java will be given, and we will look at the considerations underlying the design of the various object-oriented (extensions of) programming languages. Also, some possible modifications and alternatives to the traditional class-based object model will be discussed, including active objects, prototypes and meta-level architectures.