Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!i2unix!inria!ilog!barbes!davis From: davis@barbes.ilog.fr (Harley Davis) Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Subject: Re: Prototype methods in CLOS? Message-ID: Date: 17 Sep 90 11:55:30 GMT References: <63236@bu.edu.bu.edu> <15344@shlump.nac.dec.com> Sender: davis@ilog.UUCP Organization: ILOG S.A., Gentilly, France Lines: 32 In-reply-to: gunderson@aiag.enet.dec.com's message of 13 Sep 90 15:26:27 GMT In article <15344@shlump.nac.dec.com> gunderson@aiag.enet.dec.com writes: A useful terminology refers to the ordinary CLOS classes as 1st-level instances of the metaclass and the instances of an ordinary CLOS class as 2nd-level instances of the metaclass. The term "2nd level instance" was first used in Graube, Nicolas, "Metaclass Compatibility." Proceedings of the 1989 Object Oriented Programming: System Languages, and Applications Conference (OOPSLA-89), pp. 305-315, 1989. In our own work here at DEC, we extended the terminology with "1st level instance". Alan Gunderson I happen to think this isn't such great terminology, largely because the word "level" is somewhat too general for such a specific use. I prefer the term "metainstance" for what Nicolas (and you) call "2nd level instance", because it is a unique term, and it complements the term "metaclass". An object's metaclass is the class of its class; an object's metainstances are the instances of its instances. -- Harley -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Harley Davis internet: davis@ilog.fr ILOG S.A. uucp: ..!mcvax!inria!davis 2 Avenue Gallie'ni, BP 85 tel: (33 1) 46 63 66 66 94253 Gentilly Cedex France