Class slots in CLOS


Greetings,

It seems to me that there are two ways to define class slots (slots common to all instances of the class) in CLOS as follows:

1. via the use of :allocation :class slot option

2. By the creation and use of a meta-class that is to house the shared slots for a given class or set of classes.

I suppose my main question is what is the difference. I'm pretty sure method #1 is easier to declare and access to the class slots is easier (just like instance slots). Is one faster than the other.

I understand that using method #2 is more flexible and theoretically pure. Or, is method #1 just a shorthand for method #2?

Thanks.

Blake McBride
.

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