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	Ruby	Objective-C	Smalltalk-80 (as it was 20 years ago) (corrected)	S# (SmallScript Corp's Smalltalk-98 Dialect Superset)	JavaScript 2.0 (ECMA Script)	C#	C++	Java	Python	CLOS
Typing	dynamic	dynamic/static	dynamic	dynamic with optional type declarations. Typing declarations are used statically and dynamically, as appropriate.	dynamic with optional type declarations	static	static	static	dynamic	dynamic
Runtime access to method names	yes	yes	yes	yes	?	yes	no	yes	yes	yes*
Runtime access to class names	yes	yes	yes	yes	?	yes	no	yes	yes	yes*
Runtime access to instance variable names	yes	yes	yes	yes	?	yes	no	yes	yes	yes*
Forwarding (Delegation, Distributed Objects and Proxies?)	yes	yes	yes	yes (Semantic Messages, Event Methods, etc)	?	yes (Event Methods)	no	no (?)	yes	??
Metaclasses	yes	yes	yes (all objects all the time)	yes (everything is logically an object; which means that classes have functions [methods] and within those functions [methods] <self/this> refers to the class; it also means that classes (instances of <Metaclass>) individually have their own [instance] class variables)	no	no (classes and methods are not objects)	no	no	yes	meta objects
Inheritance	single	single	single*	multiple (behavior is MI, structure is SI with MI-equivalent structure mixin acquired through transparent aggregation of concrete interfaces)	yes	single	multiple	single	multiple	multiple
Access to super method	super	super	super *	super, Superclass:super, thisContext, CallNextMethod,...	yes	yes	Superclass::method	super	(Python 2.1 syntax): super(MyClass,self).methodName	call-next-method
root class (supports classes?, supports per/instance prototypes?)	Object	Object (can have multiple)	Can be none, defaults to Object (can subclass from nil, superclass not required)	Object (also supports prototypes/instance-specific behavior variables, and properties)	Prototype Language	Object	none	Object	none	t or nil?
Receiver name	self	self	self	self (or this; true functions; thisContext for dynamic frame level reflection and MOP)	this	this	this	this	self	none, true generic functions
Private Data (by class?, by instance?)	yes	yes	yes	yes (on a class or instance basis)	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
Private methods	yes	yes	yes	yes (selector namespaces provide runtime scoping)	yes (selector namespaces provide runtime scoping)	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
Class Variables	yes	no	yes (classes are objects, shared/pool variables also exist)	yes (classes are objects, shared/pool variables also exist)	yes	yes (static only, classes are not objects)	yes	yes	yes	yes
Interactive (Eval Facilities)	?	?	yes	yes	yes	no	no	?	yes	yes
Pre-emptively Multi-threadable (native threads?)	?	?	no (no host thread support; uses green threads -- it calls processes)	yes	yes	yes (SMP GC)	yes	?	? (almost)	no (some implementation support this)
Intrinsic Exception Model (native exception integration)	?	?	no	yes (very rich, zero-cost facilities)	yes	yes (but retry, and restart not allowed)	yes	?	yes (a model exists)	?
Foreign Function Interface (cross language interop and marshalling)	?	?	no (requires hand built primitives - complicated to write)	yes (replaces need for primitives; language also supports inline C/C++/Assembly)	?	yes (intrinisc COM and Distributed Object Services)	yes	?	indirect (via extension modules)	yes
Dynamic Reflection and MOP Facilities	?	?	yes	yes	?	Rich Static Reflection (limited MOP)	no (limited RTTI)	?	yes (but awkward)	yes (very rich)
Binding Predicates (including around, before, after, blocking, non-inheritable, etc)	?	?	no (but experimental packages exist)	yes	no	yes (predicates are not available for around, before, after behavior)	no	?	no	yes
Aspect Oriented Programming Foundation (per/instance read/write barriers, managed objects, method weaving, managed objects)	?	?	no (but experimental packages exist)	yes (not hi-level)	no	no	no (various expermental tools exist)	?	AOP features since Python 2.2 support this to one degree or another.	yes (experimental packages)
Calltime Dispatch Binding (late/dynamic)	?	?	yes	yes	yes	no	no (vtables and dynamic-casts provide weak/unsafe form of late binding)	?	Trivially true. (Support for generic and better is coming with 2.4/PEP 318).	yes
Multi-methods (overloading)	?	?	no	yes	yes	yes	yes (but restricted facilities)	?	No (strictly speaking). It is not seen that way, it is done in the class rather than the operator?	yes
Macro System	?	?	no	no (has simple if defined mechanism, language compilers are also present and are dynamically extensible)	no (has simple if defined mechanism)	no