Re: CALL-NEXT-METHOD Winter Solstice present

[kempf%hplabsz@hplabs.HP.COM]

> I prefer the definition that the documentation is intended to say now,
> which is that CALL-NEXT-METHOD calls the same method regardless of
> what arguments you give it, and the arguments you give it are not
> allowed to change the applicable methods.  That seems simpler than a
> more relaxed definition that tries to state which cases of changing
> the applicable methods are allowed and which aren't, and in what
> circumstances CALL-NEXT-METHOD calls a different method from the
> one it would normally call.

I don't have any problem with this, except that it shuts off a potentially
nice way of using CALL-NEXT-METHOD, namely to invoke a more general
method which is not specifically the next method in the list of applicable
methods. I've often felt the need for this when using CALL-NEXT-METHOD in PCL.
However, the flexibility might not be worth trying to enumerate the
cases which will and won't work, as Dave has pointed out.

In any case, the description in the spec should be cleaned up to state
that the next method is the next element in the list of applicable
methods after the executing one, in both the argument and nonargument
cases.

		jak