MSc/PGDip Computer Science: Research Investigation Coursework

Topics in Object-Oriented Programming and related areas

Dynamic and Statically typed object-oriented languages

For the last ten years Java has been one of the driving forces in programming language development. As you know, Java is a strongly and statically typed language. In the last couple of years there has been a movement to strongly typed but dynamic languages (e.g., Ruby) and hybrid languages (e.g., Scala).

You should compare and contrast these types of languages and discuss the types of features the successor to Java might require in the RIA (Rich Internet Application) era.

References

1. Ruby: Programmers' Best Friend
2. Groooooovy Babe: Jazzing Up Plain Old Java
3. Beyond Java by Bruce Tate
4. Static vs. Dynamic Binding (ppt)
5. Bruce Eckel's views
6. Java vs Dynamic Languages
7. Google's Native Client
8. The busy Java developer's guide to Scala: Functional programming for the object oriented