Prototype
Prototypes or
prototypical instances combine the most representative
attributes of a
category. A prototype is the stage before the final design. They are the best examples among the members of a category and serve as benchmarks against which the surrounding "poorer" instances are categorized (see
Prototype Theory).See also:
Categorization,
SemanticsIn many fields, there is great uncertainty as to whether a new design will actually do what is desired. New designs often have unexpected problems. A prototype is built to test the function of the new design before starting production of a product.
Building the full design is often expensive and can be time-consuming. Sometimes, rather than building the full design, figuring out what the problems are, then building another full design, "rapid-prototyping" or "rapid application development" techniques are used for the initial prototypes, which implement part, but not all, of the complete design. This allows manufacturers to rapidly and inexpensively test the parts of the design that are most likely to have problems, solve those problems, and then build the full design.
This
counter-intuitive idea is shared by
scaffolding and
the telescope rule.
Automobiles from the premier tier of international
sports car racing are informally called
prototypes. Unlike
GT automobiles, which are based on road-legal, production models that are modified for racing, these prototypes are designed purely for racing and track useâ€"in order to expand the limits of high performance. The enormous expense of building and racing these automobiles is rewarded in status achieved by the builder, usually resulting in sales of expensive production automobiles implementing many of the elements developed for racing in prototypesâ€"rather than production of the models racedâ€"or, through name recognition alone (
see Audi R8).
The overall winners of multi-class events such as the
24 Hours of Le Mans usually areâ€"or wereâ€"prototypes, as were the
Ferrari P series, the
Porsche 908, or the
Alfa Romeo 33. In contrast, the famous
Porsche 917 and
Ferrari 512S, featured in the 1971 movie,
Le Mans, were entered in another classâ€"the "
sports car" classâ€"a class for which a minimum of twenty-five of each automobile model had to be built to qualify ("
homologation").
A contemporary example of an automobile racing prototype is the
Audi R10 Diesel.
The most common use of the word prototype is a functional, although experimental, version of a non-military machine (e.g., automobiles, domestic appliances, consumer electronics) whose designers would like to have built by
mass production means, as opposed to a
mockup, which is an inert representation of a machine's appearance, often made of some non-durable substance.
In the fictional
Gundam universe, prototypes have many superb features which are not to be included in their mass production models because their high performance is proportional to their high cost. This somewhat unlikely setting is a compromise between realism and heroic story lines: the only leading characters can pilot powerful
mobile suits.
Builders of military machines and aviation prefer the terms "experimental" and "service test".
In
computer science, a
function prototype is the
declaration of a
subroutine or function. However, in
prototype-based programming (in the context of
object-oriented programming), a prototype is an object that can be cloned in order to produce new objects.
It can also refer to the
Prototype JavaScript frameworkIn
Software Engineering, a
prototype generally refers to a breadboard (or evolutionary) prototype or a throwaway (or one-off) prototype. Breadboard prototypes are often software in a development stage, focusing on a subset of the total requirements for a product. These prototypes usually are intended to evolve into the final design. Project managers may formally identify a software component as
prototype to communicate with stakeholders that the component may or may not comprise the techniques ultimately allocated to the product design, or to meet business objectives. It should not be assumed that the prototype is merely for testing concepts (throwaway). That would be an aspect of a "research" project or "proof of concept." Prototypes provide the software developers with a "working model" for demonstration or use by customers, quality-assurance, business analysts, and managers to confirm or make changes to requirements, help define interfaces, develop collaborating components, and to provide proof of incremental achievement of scheduled contractual agreements.
Software Prototyping serves any and all of these purposes in practice.
Extreme Programming uses
iterative designto gradually add one feature at a time to the initial prototype,attempting to minimize "
irreducible complexity".
Among
model railroad enthusiasts, at least in
North America, actual
railroads are commonly spoken of as "prototypes".
In the field of
scale modeling (which includes
model railroading, vehicle modeling, airplane modeling, military modeling, etc.), a prototype is the real-world basis or source for a scale modelâ€"such as the real
EMD GP38-2 locomotiveâ€"which is the prototype of
Athearn's (among other manufacturers) locomotive model. Technically, any non-living object can serve as a prototype for a model, including structures, equipment, and appliances, and so on, but generally prototypes have come to mean full-size real-world vehicles including automobiles (the prototype 1957 Chevy has spawned many models), military equipment (such as M4 Shermans, a favorite among US Military modelers), railroad equipment, motor trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, and space-ships (real-world such as Apollo/Saturn Vs, or the ISS).
There is debate whether 'fictional' or imaginary items can be considered prototypes (such as Star Wars or Star Trek starships, since the feature ships themselves
are models or CGI-artifacts); however, humans and other living items are never called prototypes, even when they are the basis for models and dolls (especially -
action figures).
