The Howdy Glossary

Bistro is a programming language developed under the European Union's Esprit program as part of the BISTRO project. It was designed to facilitate the creation of animated and interactive content within multimedia applications, offering an object-oriented syntax that allowed users to define both appearance and behavior. Key features included event-driven behaviors, garbage collection, and support for asynchronous I/O operations through a minimal set of primitives.

Bistro's primary goal was to serve as a tool for developing animated and interactive multimedia content. The language provided mechanisms for defining appearance and behavior in an object-oriented manner, emphasizing event-driven interactions necessary for dynamic multimedia experiences. As part of the BISTRO project's objectives under the Esprit program, Bistro aimed to create an open platform for multimedia application development, providing comprehensive features such as garbage collection and asynchronous I/O support tailored specifically for this purpose.

In comparison with modern tools like JavaScript frameworks (React or Angular) or game development engines (Unity or Unreal Engine), Bistro stands out due to its specialized focus on multimedia application development from its inception under the BISTRO project. Its unique attributes include object-oriented syntax tailored for animated content, event-driven behavior mechanisms, efficient memory management through garbage collection, and support for asynchronous I/O operations. While contemporary competitors might offer broader scopes and larger user bases, Bistro's niche focus on creating engaging multimedia applications aligns well with specific developer needs within that domain.