list all methods for specific instance of a class/ instance of a class

The simple answer is, not really. That's not to say it's impossible - but the main issue is that because methods don't belong to a class (as they do with Python, and Ruby (I think - I don't really have practical Ruby experience though)), it's a little harder to do this level of introspection.

You could potentially find all symbols, find which are generic functions using isGeneric, then use getMethodSpecializers to find out which specialiser arguments are available (it could be on any of the arguments, not just the first) but you'd have to also deal with the fact that your object might be a superClass of the specialiser on the generic function (superclassesOf could find this). So I'm sure with a bit of thought and care to iron out the wrinkles, it could be done. However, my question would be why? Why would you want this?

BTW, this wouldn't help with finding plus for fixnum, because plus is not a generic function - it's a simple function that happens to cope with fixnum and flonum, but that's not on an OO basis. BTW, println can be passed any object - but again, it's not a generic function - it just prints the result of printself for an object, or the built-in print representation for built-in types.  So this is not going to help you, because there's nothing to tie the arguments of these simple functions to the classes or types for which they can be called with - the downside of a loosely typed language.

Regards,

Andrew.

Hi Andrew. Once you have gone to Ruby, most code writers don't want to go back (I am one of them, and you can also ask Myles Prather from Cadence Texas), and you got that right about Ruby. I have an OCEAN command which analyzes parameters of certain cells. The methods are added as the project processes. One way is to have a slot with the methods' names, and add them, which is what I do now (inelegant, but fast). The methods have a naming convention, which I could use (I am using them anyway, in any language). The other way is to search, like you stated, and get the methods with a naming convention, which should be easy, as these methods' names always begin with the class name. So, I guess that that is what I'll do. The superclass is of no relevance, for the purpose of this exercise. I'll use the get generics of the symbols, and then, with setof, apply a regexp for the naming convention. For my current needs, this is enough. Except for one thing: How do I find all the symbols defined (the list to filter through)? Thanks.

allGenericFunctions=setof(sym oblist boundp('sym) && isGeneric(sym))

The boundp is there because oblist (which is a list of all defined symbols) contains unbound and so when sym gets assigned unbound it would break otherwise.

Andrew.

Well, now I have all the the building blocks. Thanks.