Programming in Dylan (Q4229237)

Dylan, which stands for Dynamic Language, is a programming language designed by Apple Computer to support object-oriented programming (OOP). Dylan is based on concepts from languages like Smalltalk and Lisp which are widely used in Artificial Intelligence. After the very fast propagation of Java for me the importance of Dylan for programming and for its developers is unclear. In any case, implementations under MacOS (Apple Macintosh), UNIX and Windows (MS-DOS) are available. The book aims at programmers with knowledge in languages like C and Pascal, without knowledge in OOP however. After an introductory treatment of object-oriented concepts, an extensive example follows, which serves as a groundwork for the presentation of Dylan language concepts. In doing so the Dylan Interim Reference Manual (Dylan Group, Apple Computer, June, 1994) is used. The source code for the example is added in an appendix. The text is understandably written. Striking is the nearly total lack of pictures, tables and graphical presentations to support the text. In the whole book there is only one single picture. The list of further readings is helpful to increase knowledge on OOP. With two pages the index is a little bit short. For programmers, who want to learn programming in Dylan, the book is an useful supplement to the Reference Manual.