8 The Class Browser

The Class Browser allows you to examine Common Lisp classes. It contains seven views, allowing you to view class information in a number of different ways. You can display each view by clicking the appropriate tab. The available views are as follows:

• The slots view is used to look at the slots available to the class browsed. This view is rich in information, showing you details about items such as the readers and writers of the selected slot.
• The subclasses view produces a graph of the subclasses of the current class, giving you an easy way to see the relationship between different classes in the environment.
• The superclasses view produces a graph of the superclasses of the current class, giving you an easy way to see the relationship between different classes in the environment.
• The hierarchy view lets you see the immediate superclasses and the immediate subclasses of the current class, using a text-based interface.
• The initargs view allows you to see the initargs of the current class together with information about each initarg. See Examining initargs for more details on how you can use this view.
• The functions view allows you to see information about the CLOS methods that have been defined on the current class. See Examining generic functions and methods for details on using the information in this view.
• The precedence view is used to show the class precedence list for the current class. See Examining class precedences for more details on how you can use this information.

To create a Class Browser, choose Window > Tools > Class Browser or click . Alternatively, to invoke a Class Browser on a Lisp object use Esc X Describe Class in an Editor, or choose Class from any submenu that provides the standard action commands to invoke a Class Browser on the Lisp object referred to by that submenu, or click . This automatically browses the class of the Lisp object. For more information on how the standard action commands refer to objects in the environment, see Performing operations on selected objects.

8.1 Simple use of the Class Browser

8.2 Examining slot information

8.3 Examining superclasses and subclasses

8.4 Examining classes graphically

8.5 Examining generic functions and methods

8.6 Examining initargs

8.7 Examining class precedences