In James NOBLE, Antero TAIVALSAARI and Ivan MOORE, editors, Prototype-Based Object-Oriented Programming: Concepts, Languages and Applications. Springer, Chapter 2, pages 17-45, feb. 1999.

Abstract :

The prototype-based programming model has always been difficult to characterize precisely. Prototype-based languages are all based on similar sets of basic principles, yet they all differ in their precise interpretation of these principles.  Moreover, if the prototype-based model advocates concrete objects as the only means of modeling concepts, current languages promote methodologies reintroducing abstract constructions to manage groups of similar objects efficiently.  We have proposed two classifications of delegation-based languages in order to clarify these issues. The first classification considers the primitives of the virtual machine underlying each language, and classifies languages according to the semantics of these primitives.  The second classification considers the group-oriented constructions provided in each language, and classifies languages according to the level of abstractness of these constructions.  The two classifications complement each other and other existing classifications.  They allow people to assess the relative merits of the different languages more precisely. 

BibTex reference: 

@InCollection{Dony99a,
author = {Christophe Dony and Jacques Malenfant and Daniel Bardou},
title = {{Classifying Prototype-based Programming Languages}},
booktitle = {{Prototype-Based Object-Oriented Programming: Concepts, Languages and Applications}},
publisher = {Springer},
year = 1999,
pages = {17-45},
editor = {James Noble and Antero Taivalsaari and Ivan Moore},
chapter = 2,
month = feb
}