Value Objects in Newspeak

This is a quick dump of a rough design sketch for Value objects in Newspeak, which builds upon section 3.1.1 of the current version of the Newspeak language specification. Value classes allow explicit intent. The class declaration is automatically annotated with metadata that expresses the intent for instances to be value objects. Value classes use… Continue reading Value Objects in Newspeak

References and Actors

In E, references are distinct from the objects they designate. This might seem apparent, but it is not necessarily so. In traditional languages like Java, first-class references are almost indistinguishable from the objects they designate. They are internally represented as 4- to 8-byte pointers and while there is a distinction between reference equality (two references… Continue reading References and Actors