Metaobject Protocols:
Why We Want Them and What Else They Can Do
Originally conceived as a neat idea that could help solve problems in
the design and implementation of CLOS, the metaobject protocol
framework now appears to have applicability to a wide range of
problems that come up in high-level languages. This chapter sketches
this wider potential, by drawing an analogy to ordinary language
design, by presenting some early design principles, and by presenting
an overview of three new metaobject protcols we have designed that,
respectively, control the semantics of Scheme, the compilation of
Scheme, and the static parallelization of Scheme programs.
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