Microsoft Word OpenIssuesInOO. doc

5.1.1.  Prototypical concepts versus prototype-based languages 

A natural question to ask is whether or not the prototypical concepts described above 

correspond to modeling based on prototype-based languages. The answer is no! 

 

Prototypical concepts are based on a distinction between phenomena and concepts. The 

intension of a prototypical concept is described/characterised by means of properties and 

prototypes. The prototype-based modeling is only based on phenomena and relations 

between these. There is no notion of concepts involved. 

When prototype-based modeling  is applied in practice, it seems that new phenomena 

are modeled (cloned) based on a few distinguished prototype objects. These objects are thus 

very close to serving the same purpose as a concept. We return to this issues below.