Meaning of MOP (was Re: was: Re: looking for MOP documentation)

[Peter Hansen]

Peter Hansen wrote:
> 
> Ng Pheng Siong wrote:
> >
> > According to Peter Hansen  <peter at engcorp.com>:
> > > kasper graversen wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 14:36:44 -0400, Peter Hansen <peter at engcorp.com> wrote:
> > > > >> Erm, what's "MOP" mean?
> > > > what has all this talk to do with documentation of the MOP???
> > > Er, if you'll look back, you'll see that Anthony asked what MOP
> > > meant
> >
> > Meta Object Protocol.
> 
> Thanks, but one might say that this is what it spells, not what it _means_.
> 
> At this point, I'm sure google would help, if I felt a driving
> need to go and learn what it really means.

Annoyed that nobody seemed to be willing to actually define this (which
leads me to suspect that none of those involved in the thread actually
*know* what it means, other than to expand the acronym), I did a little
searching and found http://cliki.tunes.org/Meta-Object%20Protocol , which
at least attempts to define it.  It still doesn't describe it well enough
for someone to really understand the purpose, the value, the reason for
bothering to do such a thing, but it's better than the definitions offered
so far in this thread...

-Peter