🚀 go-pugleaf

re:   (1) that you cannot change class variables through the class object,
	  you have to have an instance

Because of the existence of CLOS:CLASS-PROTOTYPE, this matter is mostly
moot.  I say "mostly" for two reasons:

   (1) there are optimization technology matters that are directed towards
       explicit calls like (SLOT-VALUE instance 'A) which probably won't 
       "work" on calls like (SLOT-VALUE (CLOS:CLASS-PROTOTYPE class) 'A);
       
   (2) Although CLOS:CLASS-PROTOTYPE seems to be accepted as a de facto
       standard, it isn't mentioned in the draft ANS proposal; probably
       the widespread acceptance of CLIM has forced the vendors to make
       this one work, despite some fundamental problems with it's 
       semantics.

The synthetic applications that abound in texts and tutorials well 
illustrate the purpose for this concept  -- that the interface to them 
from within a body of code is uniform, as a "slot" access, regardless
of how the information is implemented [i.e., whether it is :instance or
:class].  The goal is to permit the programmer to change the implementation
of the information without having to pore over all his code altering the
access forms.


-- JonL --