The Howdy Glossary

Cecil is an experimental object-oriented language developed by a team at INRIA in the 1990s, led by Xavier Leroy. It features a unique type system that supports multiple inheritance without ambiguity through the intersection of parameters and return types. Influenced by research on open implementation and semantic reflection, Cecil allows objects to be redefined incrementally during program execution without requiring application restarts or rebuilds. Despite its innovative design, Cecil has not gained widespread use and remains primarily utilized in academic research on programming languages.

Cecil's unique features include a type system based on intersecting parameters and return types, allowing for multiple inheritance without introducing ambiguities. The language emphasizes open implementation and semantic reflection, enabling dynamic redefinition of objects during program execution. These capabilities differentiate Cecil from traditional programming languages by facilitating incremental code evolution without the need for application restarts or rebuilds. This focus makes Cecil an important platform for academic researchers exploring advanced concepts in object-oriented language design.

The main competitors to Cecil are other experimental object-oriented languages like Self, Beta, and Clean which address similar challenges in programming language design such as multiple inheritance and typing systems. However, Cecil distinguishes itself through its specific approach to handling multiple inheritance via intersecting parameters and return types as well as its capability for open implementation and semantic reflection. These distinctive characteristics grant it competitive advantages in fostering innovation within academic circles focused on programming languages despite its limited adoption outside these environments.