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January 23, 2026
Foundational Papers
- Self: The Power of Simplicity — Ungar & Smith, OOPSLA 1987 (revised 1991). The original paper introducing prototype-based OOP.
- An Efficient Implementation of Self — Chambers, Ungar & Lee, OOPSLA 1989. Introduces maps (hidden classes).
- Optimizing Dynamically-Typed Object-Oriented Languages With Polymorphic Inline Caches — Hölzle, Chambers & Ungar, ECOOP 1991. The foundational PIC paper.
Theses & Extended Works
- Adaptive Optimization for Self: Reconciling High Performance with Exploratory Programming — Urs Hölzle, Stanford PhD Thesis, 1994. Comprehensive treatment of type feedback and deoptimization.
- The Design and Implementation of the Self Compiler — Craig Chambers, Stanford PhD Thesis, 1992. Deep dive into compilation strategies.
UI and Environment
- Self: The Video — Stanford demonstration video showing the live programming environment.
- Morphic: The Self User Interface Framework — Maloney & Smith, 1995. The direct-manipulation UI that influenced Squeak.
Official Resources
- Self Language Website — Downloads, documentation, and current releases.
- Complete Self Bibliography — Full collection of all Self papers with PDF links.
- Self GitHub Repository — Current source code and development.