Object-oriented programming in Lisp has a long history. Researchers have been experimenting with object-oriented extensions to Lisp for at
least fifteen years. The ideas of Smalltalk have been imported into
Lisp several times. In addition, many people have used Lisp to experi-
experiment with entirely original ideas for how to organize object-oriented
programs.
By 1986, a "tower of Babel" situation had developed. Several object-
oriented extensions to Lisp were available, some in quite wide use. Each
of these dialects was different from all the others, sometimes in impor-
important ways, sometimes just accidentally. The flowering of experimenta-
experimentation and novel ideas was certainly a good thing, but it led to practical
problems. Academics had trouble communicating because they used di-
divergent dialects and could not read each other's programs. Software de-
developers interested in deploying their applications on a wide variety of
platforms were inhibited, because each system had a different language
for object-oriented programming. New implementors had a difficult time
choosing which object-oriented language to implement. In short, the
Lisp community was being balkanized.