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Shared/class;local/instance



Danny and I agreed to the following terminological definition. If y'all
agree, we'll go with it:

1. We adopt the terms ``local'' and ``shared'' to describe the visibility
or scope of slots. The first, ``local,'' will refer to slots that are
visible to exactly one instance.  The second, ``shared,'' will refer to
slots that are visible to a subset of the instances of a given class and
its subclasses.  Often this subset is the same as the set of instances of
the class and its subclasses, but a smaller subset can result if a
subclass redefines the slot to be local to its instances.

2. We state that a slot with allocation type :instance is a local slot
and a slot with allocation type :class is a shared slot, and that
we leave room for extensions to CLOS in which other allocation types
are possible, but stipulate that only extensions that produce shared
or local slots are allowed.

3. We review all places where the terms ``shared'' and ``local'' are
currently used in the specification and decide whether what we are
saying at each place refers to shared/local slots or to slots whose
allocation types are :class/:instance. If the former, we leave the
wording essentially as it is; if the latter, we change the terminology
to use this wording or its equivalent: a slot with allocation type
:class (or :instance).

			-rpg-