3.14.1 Terms

Object

Any Scheme data object.

Instance

An instance of the OO system; an object.

Operation

A method.

Notes:

The object system supports multiple inheritance. An instance can inherit from 0 or more ancestors. In the case of multiple inherited operations with the same identity, the operation used is that from the first ancestor which contains it (in the ancestor let). An operation may be applied to any Scheme data object—not just instances. As code which creates instances is just code, there are no classes and no meta-anything. Method dispatch is by a procedure call a la CLOS rather than by send syntax a la Smalltalk.

Disclaimer:

There are a number of optimizations which can be made. This implementation is expository (although performance should be quite reasonable). See the L&FP paper for some suggestions.