[cl-weblocks-ticket] #53: Research switching from using slot's :type specifier to our own metaclass

[cl-weblocks]

#53: Research switching from using slot's :type specifier to our own metaclass
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 Reporter:  sakhmechet          |       Owner:  sakhmechet
     Type:  defect              |      Status:  new       
 Priority:  medium              |   Milestone:  0.1       
Component:  weblocks            |     Version:  pre-0.1   
 Keywords:  slot type renderer  |  
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 Note, some implementations (like OpenMCL) enforce slot type
 specializations. If we set a slot's type as integer, OpenMCL will not let
 us assign nil. Currently we rely on default values of data types to be
 nil, but in case of OpenMCL we're forced to set the default to some
 integer value. For some types of data (like age, for example) this leads
 to weird 'default' age of zero. In the future, we may want to rely on
 boundp instead of checking for nil.

 Additionally, some implementations (CLISP) don't return the value of type
 declaration as is: if we define a new type alias 'age', set the type for a
 slot, and then query the type of the slot, we may get back a different
 value equivalent to age.

 In light of these facts, we may want to consider creating a new metaclass
 for datatypes and using a new slot specifier instead of 'type'.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://trac.common-lisp.net/cl-weblocks/ticket/53>
cl-weblocks <http://common-lisp.net/project/cl-weblocks>
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