Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition

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28.1.9.3. Defaulting of Initialization Arguments

A default value form can be supplied for an initialization argument by using the :default-initargs class option. If an initialization argument is declared valid by some particular class, its default value form might be specified by a different class. In this case :default-initargs is used to supply a default value for an inherited initialization argument.

The :default-initargs option is used only to provide default values for initialization arguments; it does not declare a symbol as a valid initialization argument name. Furthermore, the :default-initargs option is used only to provide default values for initialization arguments when making an instance.

The argument to the :default-initargs class option is a list of alternating initialization argument names and forms. Each form is the default value form for the corresponding initialization argument. The default value form of an initialization argument is used and evaluated only if that initialization argument does not appear in the arguments to make-instance and is not defaulted by a more specific class. The default value form is evaluated in the lexical environment of the defclass form that supplied it; the result is used as the initialization argument’s value.

The initialization arguments supplied to make-instance are combined with defaulted initialization arguments to produce a defaulted initialization argument list. A defaulted initialization argument list is a list of alternating initialization argument names and values in which unsupplied initialization arguments are defaulted and in which the explicitly supplied initialization arguments appear earlier in the list than the defaulted initialization arguments. Defaulted initialization arguments are ordered according to the order in the class precedence list of the classes that supplied the default values.

There is a distinction between the purposes of the :default-initargs and the :initform options with respect to the initialization of slots. The :default-initargs class option provides a mechanism for the user to give a default value form for an initialization argument without knowing whether the initialization argument initializes a slot or is passed to a method. If that initialization argument is not explicitly supplied in a call to make-instance, the default value form is used, just as if it had been supplied in the call. In contrast, the :initform slot option provides a mechanism for the user to give a default initial value form for a slot. An :initform form is used to initialize a slot only if no initialization argument associated with that slot is given as an argument to make-instance or is defaulted by :default-initargs.

The order of evaluation of default value forms for initialization arguments and the order of evaluation of :initform forms are undefined. If the order of evaluation matters, use initialize-instance or shared-initialize methods.

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