Request for info on PCL

[David McKelvie <david%ecrcvax.uucp%germany.csnet@RELAY.CS.NET>]

Hi;
Thanks for replying to my questionabout all-slots-using-class,
I changed all-slots-using-class in the way suggested and it works fine. 

I sent the letter below to
	Germany\!CommonLoops-Coordinator.pa@Xerox.arpa
and to
	Germany\!gregor.pa@Xerox.arpa
and did'nt get a reply. Perhaps it did'nt get through, so I'll repeat it here.

Thanks for adding me to the CommonLoops mailing list, I am finding it useful.
In fact other people at ECRC are also interested in this mail, so we'd like
to send the incoming mail to another name here.
So, could you change 
	david@ecrcvax
to
	cl@ecrcvax
on the mailing list?

We at ECRC are trying to use CommonLoops on a Xerox 1100 machine with
Koto and CML and are finding it hard work. 
Mainly because we have scanty documentation
i.e. two papers by Bobrow et al which are seriously inaccurate.
This mail contains a list of questions we have, and would be grateful
for any helpful replies.

The version we received was from Siemens in Germany as they sold us the
machines. In the CommonLoops mailing list I hear of various versions of 
CommonLoops, I dont know what version we have, the variable *pcl-system-date*
is not defined. The file kernel.l is dated 18 Sept 86. I suspect that we have
an out-of-date version as you recommended using 'defclass' instead of 
'ndefstruct'and that is not part of our system.

Questions:

Is there any proper documentation available on CommonLoops? If it is seriously
intended as a trial standard then I think there should be. If there is, then
how do we get it?

Is there a mechanism for receiving new versions of CommonLoops?

Has anyone written a class browser for CommonLoops, particularly one that
works using the 1100 graphics?

The CL system is very badly integrated with the normal Interlisp programming
environment. What is the recommended way to develop CL programs on the 1100?

The command compile-file does not work on files stored on a file-server as they
must be RANDOMACCESSP.

It is claimed that one can edit a class and add new slots, and that these new
slots will then exist in instances of the class previously created. However
this does not happen. Example:
	(ndefstruct (junk (:class class)) a )
	(setq j1 (make 'junk :a 1))
	(ndefstruct (junk (:class class)) a b)
	(junk-b j1)
typed into a CL exec window gives the error message
	The slot B is missing from the object 
	#(MAKE (QUOTE OBSOLETE-JUNK) :A 1)

Thanks; david