issue CLOS-MACRO-COMPILATION

[sandra%defun@cs.utah.edu (Sandra J Loosemore)]

I'm in the process of revising the writeup on this issue to
incorporate the amendment Gregor proposed at the last meeting, and I
have a question.

The amendment uses the term "load time" to describe the time at which
certain things happen.  I think is not really what we want, since it's
possible that the defining macro in question might not appear at top
level.  I'd suggest saying something like "the time at which the macro
is normally executed" instead. 

However, to me this doesn't really make sense in the context of the
amendment to the DEFINE-METHOD-COMBINATION language: "clarify that the
bodies of such forms are evaluated no earlier than load time".  Does
this really mean "no earlier than the time at which the
DEFINE-METHOD-COMBINATION macro is executed"?  I've been under the
impression that DEFINE-METHOD-COMBINATION defines a functional object
and that its body could be evaluated no earlier than the time that
function is invoked, which would be (at the earliest) when a
DEFGENERIC form that references it is executed.  Or am I confused
again? 

-Sandra
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