30. The method of claim 28 wherein the language processing environment is a textual, array-based programming environment having dynamic typing.
28. A method comprising: providing, in a language processing environment, a handle base class; receiving a first class definition, the first class definition defining a handle subclass, where the handle subclass has a class hierarchy that includes the handle base class; constructing, by a processor, one or more handle objects from the handle subclass; using the one or more handle objects, where the one or more handle objects are used exclusively through references to the one or more handle objects; receiving a second class definition, the second class definition defining a non-handle base class; receiving a third class definition, the third class definition defining a non-handle subclass, where the non-handle subclass has a class hierarchy that includes the non-handle base class and does not include the handle base class; constructing, by the processor, non-handle objects from the non-handle subclass; using the non-handle objects, where the non-handle objects are used exclusively by value; storing the one or more handle objects and the non-handle objects in a memory coupled to the processor; providing, in the language processing environment, a first syntax for constructing both the non-handle objects and the one or more handle objects; and providing, in the language processing environment, a second syntax for using both the non-handle objects and the one or more handle objects.