Hello, GNU Guile 2.0.11.114-649ec goops - inheritance of slot options severity - serious The current goops implementation breaks the [clos] protocol [*] for inheritance of slot options. This is a serious bug. Below, [A] what stklos does, [B] what goops does, [*] a summary of what the clos protocol says wrt inheritance of slot options. Cheers, David [A] Here is what stklos does: stklos/subclass-slot-redefinition.scm --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- (define-class () ((name :accessor name :init-keyword :name :init-form "") (age :accessor age :init-keyword :age :init-form -1))) (define-class () ((subject :accessor subject :init-keyword :subject :init-form ""))) (define-class () ((subject :init-form "Mathematics"))) --8<---------------cut here---------------end-------------->8--- david@capac:~/alto/projects/stklos 15 $ stklos * STklos version 1.10 * Copyright (C) 1999-2011 Erick Gallesio - Universite de Nice * * [Linux-3.16.0-4-amd64-x86_64/pthread/readline/utf8] stklos> (load "subclass-slot-redefinition.scm") stklos> (define p2 (make :name 'john :age 34)) ;; p2 stklos> (describe p2) #[ 28a2420] is an an instance of class . Slots are: age = 34 name = john subject = "Mathematics" stklos> (subject p2) "Mathematics" stklos> [B] Here is what goops does: goops/subclass-slot-redefinition.scm --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8--- (use-modules (oop goops)) (define-class () (name #:accessor name #:init-keyword #:name #:init-form "") (age #:accessor age #:init-keyword #:age #:init-form -1)) (define-class () (subject #:accessor subject #:init-keyword #:subject #:init-form "")) (define-class () (subject #:init-form "Mathematics")) --8<---------------cut here---------------end-------------->8--- david@capac:~/alto/projects/guile-tests/goops 51 $ guile GNU Guile 2.0.11.114-649ec Copyright (C) 1995-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Guile comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `,show w'. This program is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `,show c' for details. Enter `,help' for help. scheme@(guile-user)> (load "subclass-slot-redefinition.scm") ;;; note: auto-compilation is enabled, set GUILE_AUTO_COMPILE=0 ;;; or pass the --no-auto-compile argument to disable. ;;; compiling /usr/alto/projects/guile-tests/goops/subclass-slot-redefinition.scm ;;; compiled /home/david/.cache/guile/ccache/2.0-LE-8-2.0/usr/alto/projects/guile-tests/goops/subclass-slot-redefinition.scm.go scheme@(guile-user)> (define p2 (make #:name 'john #:age 34)) scheme@(guile-user)> ,use (oop goops describe) scheme@(guile-user)> (describe p2) #< 1432300> is an instance of class Slots are: name = john age = 34 subject = "Mathematics" scheme@(guile-user)> (subject p2) ERROR: In procedure scm-error: ERROR: No applicable method for #< subject (1)> in call (subject #< 1432300>) Entering a new prompt. Type `,bt' for a backtrace or `,q' to continue. scheme@(guile-user) [1]> [*] A summary of what the clos protocol says: [ this is a copy/paste from a clos tutorial, also pointed by [ the Stklos reference manual: [ http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~jeff/clos-guide.html#slots When there are superclasses, a subclass can specify a slot that has already been specified for a superclass. When this happens, the information in slot options has to be combined. For the slot options listed above, either the option in the subclass overrides the one in the superclass or there is a union: :ACCESSOR - union :INITARG - union :INITFORM - overrides This is what you should expect. The subclass can change the default initial value by overriding the :initform, and can add to the initargs and accessors. However, the union for :accessor is just a consequence of how generic functions work. If they can apply to instances of a class C, they can also apply to instances of subclasses of C. (Accessor functions are generic.)