Common Lisp the Language 2nd Edition

28.1.8.3. Standard Meta-objects

The Object System supplies a standard set of meta-objects called standard meta-objects. These include the class standard-object and instances of the classes standard-method standard-generic-function and method-combination.

• The class standard-method is the default class of methods that are defined by the forms defmethod defgeneric generic-function generic-flet generic-labels and with-added-methods.

• The class standard-generic-function is the default class of generic functions defined by the forms defmethod defgeneric generic-function generic-flet generic-labels with-added-methods and defclass.

• The class named standard-object is an instance of the class standard-class and is a superclass of every class that is an instance of standard-class except itself.

• Every method combination object is an instance of a subclass of the class method-combination.