SWCLOS is a software toolkit for lisp programmers who want to process knowledge in Lisp. The name is an acronym of Semantic Web Common Lisp Object System. As the name implies, SWCLOS is built on top of Common Lisp Object System (CLOS) for Semantic Webs. In SWCLOS, every entity in vocabulary of RDF, RDFS, OWL, and user-defined ontologies, denotes a CLOS object, and the computational semantics are based on RDF(S) and OWL rather than CLOS, whereas it still conforms to object-oriented paradigm.
SWCLOS is an amalgamation of Semantic Web Technology and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) language. Compared with the other systems for Semantic Webs, SWCLOS seems to have unique features. We may say pros and cons of SWCLOS are ascribed to the features of dynamic OOP language CLOS and the nature of Lisp. If you believe you are a lisp programmer and you need to develop an application for Semantic Technology, SWCLOS is the solution. Furthermore, if you have ever programmed CLOS programs, SWCLOS is the best choice. SWCLOS provides OWL Full level ontology meta-modeling facilities using CLOS meta-programming capability. You can encode CLOS programs for Semantic Webs on top of SWCLOS as you usually do in Lisp, whereas you must understand the difference of semantics between the standard CLOS and RDF(S)/OWL.
This document is userfs manual for SWCLOS programmers. Your program in SWCLOS can read ontology files in RDF/XML format, N-Triple format, and lisp S-expression which is specified for SWCLOS. Then, you can handle SWCLOS objects in Lisp, and write down computational results in the various formats mentioned above. Therefore, you can communicate with others in such formats for Semantic Webs.
If you are a CLOS programmer and want to understand what Semantic Technology is, SWCLOS provides you with a good chance to learn and get started Semantic Technology.