Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!leah!bingvaxu!vu0310
From: vu0310@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (R. Kym Horsell)
Newsgroups: comp.object
Subject: Re: What is this?
Message-ID: <3855@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
Date: 17 Aug 90 20:08:42 GMT
References: <1171@meaddata.mead.UUCP>
Reply-To: vu0310@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu.cc.binghamton.edu (R. Kym Horsell)
Organization: SUNY Binghamton, NY
Lines: 27

In article <1171@meaddata.mead.UUCP> mead!gordon@uccba.uc.edu writes:
>
>In article <1990Aug17.064856.26549@kth.se>, d87-mra@dront.nada.kth.se
>(Magnus Ramstr|m) writes:
>|> I have often seen references to the terms slot-based objects and prototype
>|> objects, but never a definition. I would be most grateful if someone could
\\\\\\
>As for protoype objects, this could mean object-oriented prototyping, or
>it might be similar to a package specification in Ada or function prototypes
>in ANSI C.  ??????

I think the distinction made in the original ref was to the
difference between class-based heirarchies and delegation/prototype
systems.

In a class-based system an instance of an object refers to its
class (and that class to its superclass) for its methods.
A class is understood to stand for the `general case' of objects
within the set of objects that it represents.

In a delegation/prototype system a prototype is understood to
be a typical object of the set it represents. Instead of refering
to a class object each object in a prototype system refers to
parent objects which may or may not contain attributes and
methods shared by `sister' objects.

-Kym Horsell