Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!agate!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!att!ihlpf!lgm
From: lgm@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Mayka)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Small object-oriented programming system for Lisp wanted
Keywords: CLOS, Flavors, Common Objects, generic functions, UNIX PC
Message-ID: <8198@ihlpf.ATT.COM>
Date: 10 Apr 89 21:21:09 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 51


I run Austin Kyoto Common Lisp on my AT&T UNIX PC.  I would like
to run an object-oriented programming system on top of AKCL.
Unfortunately, the UNIX PC architecture limits processes to
2.5 megabytes of virtual address space, so the Common Lisp
Object System will not fit.  I am therefore looking for an
alternative object system with these characteristics (basically
in priority order):

a) Small enough to fit on the UNIX PC.  AKCL comes up with
about 320 free pages, so the object system must fit within
about 600 Kbytes, compiled.  Hopefully, the object system would
be *much* smaller than that, so that the AKCL compiler would have
room to compile Lisp programs that use the object system (at least
simple ones).

b) Freely available - e.g., via anonymous FTP or UUCP.

c) Using the style of generic functions rather than a specific
message dispatch function such as 'send' - i.e., the style
of CLOS and New Flavors, rather than Old Flavors.

d) Performing reasonably enough so as not to be totally dismissed by
naysayers as merely a toy.

e) Having some degree of use and popularity, at least in educational
settings.  Documentation and examples would also then be more
likely to be readily available.

f) Having a syntax roughly similar to either CLOS or New Flavors.

Two candidates I know of, but would like to know more about, are:

a) Common Objects.  I believe a Common Objects system, portable to
any Common Lisp, was once posted to the net.  Where is it available?
Does anyone actually use it?  How does it stand up to the criteria
above?

b) The object system used in the book, "LISP, Objects, and Symbolic
Programming," by Robert R. Kessler.  The author not only uses it
throughout the book, he lists its source code in an appendix.
It looks quite serviceable, but I am loath to type it all in by
hand.  Is it FTP-able from the University of Utah?  I cannot find
the author's email address so I cannot easily contact him directly.

Any help in this matter would be much appreciated.


	Lawrence G. Mayka
	AT&T Bell Laboratories
	lgm@ihlpf.att.com