Editing NewtonScript (section)

== History ==
On August 3, 1993, Apple unveiled the Apple Newton [[MessagePad]]. The device had 640 KB RAM, 4 MB ROM, and a 20&nbsp;MHz [[ARM architecture|ARM]] 610 microprocessor.

The main intention behind Newton project, was to develop a device capable of replacing a computer while being portable. With limited battery and memory, the developers were looking for programming language capable of meeting these challenges.

The developers looked at the [[C++]] programming language but realized that it lacked flexibility. They started focusing on prototype based languages and were impressed with Smalltalk and Self.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Walter R.|title=Proceedings of the tenth annual conference on Object-oriented programming systems, languages, and applications - OOPSLA '95 |chapter=Using a prototype-based language for user interface |date=1995-01-01|location=New York, NY, USA|publisher=ACM|pages=61–72|doi=10.1145/217838.217844|isbn=978-0897917032|s2cid=14099947 }}</ref> Concurrently Apple was developing another dynamic programming language called [[Dylan (programming language)|Dylan]], which was a strong candidate for the Newton platform.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cise.ufl.edu/~jnw/Marlais/OODL.html|title=Dylan: An Object Oriented Dynamic Language|website=www.cise.ufl.edu|access-date=2016-09-22}}</ref>

However, both Self and Dylan were dropped out of consideration, as they were both in nascent stage for proper integration.

Instead, a team headed by Walter R. Smith developed a new language called NewtonScript. It was influenced by [[Dynamic programming language|dynamic language]] like [[Smalltalk]] and prototype model based like Self.<ref name=":2" />