Node:Introductory Remarks, Next:Defining New Classes, Up:Reference Manual
GOOPS is an object-oriented programming system based on a "metaobject protocol" derived from the ones used in CLOS (the Common Lisp Object System), tiny-clos (a small Scheme implementation of a subset of CLOS functionality) and STKlos.
GOOPS can be used by application authors at a basic level without any
need to understand what the metaobject protocol (aka "MOP") is and how
it works. On the other hand, the MOP underlies even the customizations
that application authors are likely to make use of very quickly -- such
as defining an initialize method to customize the initialization
of instances of an application-defined class -- and an understanding of
the MOP makes it much easier to explain such customizations in a precise
way. And in the long run, understanding the MOP is the key both to
understanding GOOPS at a deeper level and to taking full advantage of
GOOPS' power, by customizing the behaviour of GOOPS itself.
Each of the following sections of the reference manual is arranged such that the most basic usage is introduced first, and then subsequent subsections discuss the related internal functions and metaobject protocols, finishing with a description of how to customize that area of functionality.
These introductory remarks continue with a few words about metaobjects and the MOP. Readers who do not want to be bothered yet with the MOP and customization could safely skip this subsection on a first reading, and should correspondingly skip subsequent subsections that are concerned with internals and customization.
In general, this reference manual assumes familiarity with standard object oriented concepts and terminology. However, some of the terms used in GOOPS are less well known, so the Terminology subsection provides definitions for these terms.