+ (;; We need to make a distinction between the methods initially set
+ ;; up by :METHOD options to DEFGENERIC and the ones set up later by
+ ;; DEFMETHOD, because ANSI's specifies that executing DEFGENERIC on
+ ;; an already-DEFGENERICed function clears the methods set by the
+ ;; previous DEFGENERIC, but not methods set by DEFMETHOD. (Making
+ ;; this distinction seems a little kludgy, but it has the positive
+ ;; effect of making it so that loading a file a.lisp containing
+ ;; DEFGENERIC, then loading a second file b.lisp containing
+ ;; DEFMETHOD, then modifying and reloading a.lisp and/or b.lisp
+ ;; tends to leave the generic function in a state consistent with
+ ;; the most-recently-loaded state of a.lisp and b.lisp.)
+ (initial-methods
+ :initform ()
+ :accessor generic-function-initial-methods))