Declarative Programming in a Prototype-Instance System:
Object-Oriented Programming Without Writing Methods

Brad A. Myers, Dario A. Giuse, and Brad Vander Zanden

Proceedings OOPSLA'92: ACM Conference on Object-Oriented Programming
Systems, Languages, and Applications.  October 18-22, 1992.
Vancouver, BC, Canada.  SIGPLAN Notices, vol. 27, no. 10. pp. 184-200.

Most programming in the Garnet system uses a declarative style that
eliminates the need to write new methods.  One implication is that the
interface to objects is typically through their data values.  This
contrasts significantly with other object systems where writing
methods is the central mechanism of programming.  Four features are
combined in a unique way in Garnet to make this possible: the use of a
prototype-instance object system with structural inheritance, a
retained-object model where most objects persist, the use of
constraints to tie the objects together, and a new input model that
makes writing event handlers unnecessary.  The result is that code is
easier to write for programmers, and also easier for tools, such as
interactive, direct manipulation interface builders, to generate.