Dylan is a new programming language invented by Apple Computer and developed with Harlequin and other partners. The language is both object-oriented, like C++ and Java, and dynamic, like Smalltalk. Dylan is designed to deliver applications that run efficiently on a wide range of platforms. It also facilitates the rapid development and incremental refinement of prototype programs. Dylan is a good choice for any application, but you will find it particularly useful for complex object-oriented programs, and for programs that may need to be changed "on the fly."

Public-domain implementations of Dylan are available for most popular computer systems. Harlequin has developed the first complete, commercial implementation of the language--including both compiler and development environment.

You will learn here the benefits of dynamic, object-oriented programming, and how to write practical Dylan programs.

Dylan Programming gets you started quickly, with a simple but complete program that lets you experiment with the language. It then leads you progressively through the development of a sample application, illustrating advanced topics such as macros, modules, libraries, inher itance, performance, and exceptions. This book is appropriate for any Dylan implementation. It assumes that you can program in some conventional language, but requires no prior knowledge of object-oriented or dynamic techniques.

The authors have all worked on Harlequin's Dylan product. Neal Feinberg manages the development of Harlequin's database technology. Sonya E. Keene, author of Object-Oriented Programming in Common Lisp (Addison Wesley Longman, 1989) is also involved in publishing large documents ont the World Wide Web. Robert O. Mathews was previously the OSF documentation project leader for Motif and DCE. P. Tucker Withington designs and develops automatic memory-management facilities for Dylan.