Persistent storage followup

[jsp@watson.ibm.com (Scott Penberthy)]

[I can't seem to contact the original sender directly -- the
address bounces.  Sorry for the wide distribution.  jsp]


[Apparently to: R.Dongha <dongha@uk.ac.umist.co.sna>]

Paul,

Jeff Berger had an excellent suggestion of using MAKE-LOAD-FORM, seemingly
contradicting my earlier statement that no standard exists.  I've used
this in the past, but maintaining EQ-ness is difficult, as exemplified
by the quote on p. 663 of CLtL2:

"Whether the result [of make-load-form-saving-slots] is useful depends
on whether the object's type and slot contents fully capture an application's
ideas of the object's state."

I'd suggest following Jeff's approach first, then tweaking it if necessary.
This "tweaking" may find you digging deep into the structures and coming up
with several journalling techniques to model persistent storage (see Gray's
notes).  Its tough..  Good luck!

Scott