classes not initialized

[Vincent Keunen <nrb!keunen@relay.EU.net>]

I just loaded a file from my lispm into MCL 2.0 (Mac IIci) defining some
classes.  The file is not "stand-alone" because it requires other
classes (and functions) defined in other files.  MCL evaluated the code
allright not saying anything about missing classes.  Then (without
creating an instance), I tried to display it with rm's excellent class
browser.  It did, but the graph was not complete.  I mean, even classes
defined in the loaded file didn't appear because, I suppose, MCL wasn't
able to really initialize the classes.  Some class A didn't have any
subclasses defined, although some of A's subclasses had A as a
superclass...

This was quite confusing and it took me some time to find the problem.
It was not until I tried to make-instance that MCL told me it was unable
to do so because something was missing.

So my suggestion:  wouldn't it be nice, when evaluating a defclass, that
MCL told us about classes it doesn't know about yet?  I realize this
could be annoying at times, but a switch could be provided.

Has anyone extended rm's class browser yet?  It would be great to be
able to *create* a class hierarchy (ala Macflow) in a graphical manner,
then generate the source code for it!...

Vincent
--

Keunen Vincent                  Network Research Belgium
R&D, Software Engineer          Parc Industriel des Hauts-Sarts
keunen@nrb.be                   2e Avenue, 65
tel: +32 41 407282              B-4040 Herstal
fax: +32 41 481170              BELGIUM