Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!bouma
From: bouma@cs.purdue.EDU (William J. Bouma)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: CLOS Implementation
Keywords: methods
Message-ID: <11101@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Date: 18 Jul 90 20:39:07 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Purdue University
Lines: 7

How are object oriented constructs (such as CLOS or FLAVORS) implemented to
be both fast and memory efficient? You could be fast but waste memory by
having a list of methods for each type hanging off of the generic function,
then just index directly into that list to find the proper method. Or you 
could use a more compact representation that requires some search each time
the function is called. Can someone briefly describe how this is done in
CLOS|FLAVORS? (What's the best way to implement generic functions?)