kempf@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Jim Kempf) (07/29/87)
In article <4111@felix.UUCP>, preston@felix.UUCP (Preston Bannister) writes: > >CLOS is Common Lisp Object System, and it is an object-oriented > >extension to Common Lisp that is being designed and developed by > >several members of the ANSI Common Lisp committee (much of the work > >seems to have been done by Symbolics and Xerox). > ..... > >You can probably get the current draft documentation on this from > >Gregor Kiczales or Danny Bobrow at Xerox. Sorry, I don't know their > >network addresses, but my guess is Bobrow@XEROX.COM would get to him. > > All right, does anyone out there know more about CLOS? I read the > Common Loops paper in the last OOPS proceedings and was quite > interested. I'd like to hear more... > In addition to Xerox and Dave Moon of Symbolics, Dick Gabriel, of Lucid, Inc., Patrick Dussud, of TI, and myself have been actively involved in the design. There have been numerous other contributors from the Common Lisp community who have given occasional input. An initial specification of the language is available as a Tex document on parcvax.xerox.com via ftp in pub/pcl/doc, also on sail.stanford.edu (but I don't know where). Dvi files are available on parcvax in addition, in case you don't have Tex. Barring that, you can write to the ANSI X3J13 committee chairman Bob Mathis at mathis@ada20.isi.edu and ask him how to get ANSI X3J13 documents 87-002 and 87-003. The specification of the language level (programmer interface) was provisionally accepted by the ANSI X3J13 Common Lisp standardization committee in Palo Alto this spring. Outstanding issues at the programmer interface level yet to be resolved are instance initialization, automatic propagation of class changes to instances, and compilation optimization. In addition, the issue of the metaobject protocol ( a kernel language for implementing other object oriented languages) remains open, but was recognized as seperate from the language itself. The CLOS subcommittee is currently considering initialization and propagation of class changes, and some minor issues which were missed in the first round. As far as implementation goes, there is a freely distributable implementation available from Xerox which is an ongoing evolution from the old CommonLoops. Write to commonloops-coordinator.pa@xerox.com for information on how to get it. The latest release has maybe the 1/3 most important features of CLOS implemented, and Gregor Kiczales (principle implementor) is gradually evolving it toward a full, portable implementation of CLOS, somewhat in the manner that Spice Lisp was evolved to Common Lisp. There are a number of implementation specific modifications which need to be made to the portable version to customize it for particular implementations of Common Lisp. Most of the major vendors have already done so and are tracking the portable version. In general, the portable CLOS tends to be a fairly rigorous test of Common Lisp, and unless you have a full implementation of Steele, it won't port. However, if you do have a full implementation, it is usually possible to port in a day to a couple days. At OOPSLA in Orlando this fall, there will be a workshop on CLOS and probably a paper or two, plus lots of discussion. The design committee is sure to be there, and we'll be looking for questions and comments. Jim Kempf kempf@hplabs.hp.com
kempf@hplabsz.HPL.HP.COM (Jim Kempf) (07/30/87)
The Tex macros for the specification were lacking from parcvax. If anybody wants them, send me e-mail and I'll mail you the file. I can't guarantee they'll work, however, since fonts and other such may be missing from your local Tex system. Jim Kempf kempf@hplabs.hp.com
bruceo@iscuva.ISCS.COM (Bruce Oscarson) (01/06/89)
The university that I attend is trying to get a version of the Common Lisp Object System (CLOS) for their VAX. DEC has not been able to help them. If anyone has any information that might help in this search, it would be greatly appreciated. bruceo@iscuva.ISCS.COM ...!uunet!iscuva!bruceo