Self

Object-oriented, prototype-based. First appeared 1987; dynamic scripting; language and virtual machine research.

Record¶

First appeared	1987
Family	Dynamic scripting
Paradigm emphasis	Object-oriented, prototype-based
Typing	Dynamic, strong
Memory	Generational tracing GC
Execution	JIT
Primary domain	Language and virtual machine research
Designers	David Ungar, Randall B. Smith
Reference	https://handbook.selflanguage.org/
Last verified	not yet checked against its source by a human

Dates are first public release or publication, not the start of internal development. Colour on the typing and memory tags encodes kind, never rank.

Influence¶

Figure 1. Self in the influence graph: recorded ancestors on the left, languages that record it as an influence on the right. Every node links to its own record. Edges name indexed languages only, so an empty side means no indexed relative, not none at all. Source: languages.json.

Within the Dynamic scripting¶

Late binding and rapid iteration, usually paired with a large package ecosystem and an interpreter or JIT.

Language	First appeared	Typing	Memory	Execution
BASIC	1964	Dynamic, weak	Interpreter-managed	Interpreted
Smalltalk-80	1980	Dynamic, strong	Tracing GC	Bytecode VM
Perl	1987	Dynamic, weak	Reference counting	Interpreted
Python	1991	Dynamic, strong	Refcount with cycle collector	Interpreted
Lua	1993	Dynamic, weak	Incremental tracing GC	Bytecode VM
JavaScript	1995	Dynamic, weak	Tracing GC	JIT
PHP	1995	Dynamic, weak	Refcount with cycle collector	Bytecode VM
Ruby	1995	Dynamic, strong	Tracing GC	Bytecode VM
TypeScript	2012	Static, erased at runtime	Tracing GC (host)	Transpiled to JavaScript

9 other languages in this family, ordered by first appearance. Self itself is omitted. Source: languages.json.