March 93 - An Introduction to BETA: A New Object-oriented Language
An Introduction to BETA: A New Object-oriented Language
Steve Mann
New object-oriented products are announced every day. Most of them are based on a
familiar language such as C++, SmallTalk, or LISP / CLOS. New object-oriented
languages are another matter. When was the last time you saw an announcement for a
commercial-grade object-oriented language product? BETA is such a product.
Development on BETA started in 1976 as a joint venture between several universities
in Norway, Denmark, and Finland. This is the same computer science community
(often called the Scandinavian School of object-orientation) that in the early 1960s
developed Simula, the first object-oriented language. Throughout its formative years,
the BETA research has been supported by grants from many companies, including
Apollo, Apple, and Hewlett Packard. After more than 15 years of research and
development, Mjolner Informatics has released the first commercial BETA product.
AN OVERVIEW OF BETA
BETA is a completely new language with a design heavily influenced by its
object-oriented predecessors, especially Simula. It is strongly typed like C++, with
most type checking being done at compile time. The language design is based on a
powerful abstraction mechanism called a pattern. The syntax for a pattern is:
.