Abstract

In this paper I will discuss the differences between inheritance based systemsand delegation based systems. Specifically, I would like to discuss the way objects are organized in both systems, the way inheritance is implemented, how the self variable is treated and I would like to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both language types. 1 Introduction Inheritance based systems split the objects up into classes. Classes describe the shared behaviour of a set of objects. A new object is instantiated from the class and has no correspondance to other objects of the same class except for the class object. If some class shares behaviour with another class but has some peculiarities, a subclass is created which inherits the shared behaviour from the superclass. An object in a prototype based system represents the default behaviour of an object. If a new object has a different behaviour, a new object is created which describes its differences from the prototype object [3]. In this pap...

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