This is cl.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.5 from cl.texi.

INFO-DIR-SECTION XEmacs Editor
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Common Lisp: (cl).		XEmacs Common Lisp emulation package.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

  This file documents the XEmacs Common Lisp emulation package.

  Copyright (C) 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

  Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.

  Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the
section entitled "GNU General Public License" is included exactly as in
the original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is
distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this
one.

  Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that the section entitled "GNU General Public License"
may be included in a translation approved by the author instead of in
the original English.


File: cl.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Overview,  Up: (dir)

Common Lisp Extensions
**********************

This document describes a set of Emacs Lisp facilities borrowed from
Common Lisp.  All the facilities are described here in detail; for more
discussion and examples, Guy L. Steele's `Common Lisp, the Language',
second edition, is the definitive book on Common Lisp.  While this
document does not assume any prior knowledge of Common Lisp, it does
assume a basic familiarity with Emacs Lisp.

* Menu:

* Overview::             Installation, usage, etc.
* Program Structure::    Arglists, `eval-when', `defalias'
* Predicates::           `typep', `eql', and `equalp'
* Control Structure::    `setf', `when', `do', `loop', etc.
* Macros::               Destructuring, `define-compiler-macro'
* Declarations::         `proclaim', `declare', etc.
* Symbols::              Property lists, `gensym'
* Numbers::              Predicates, functions, random numbers
* Sequences::            Mapping, functions, searching, sorting
* Lists::                `cadr', `sublis', `member*', `assoc*', etc.
* Hash Tables::          `make-hash-table', `gethash', etc.
* Structures::           `defstruct'
* Assertions::           `check-type', `assert', `ignore-errors'.

* Efficiency Concerns::         Hints and techniques
* Common Lisp Compatibility::   All known differences with Steele
* Old CL Compatibility::        All known differences with old cl.el
* Porting Common Lisp::         Hints for porting Common Lisp code

* Function Index::
* Variable Index::


File: cl.info,  Node: Overview,  Next: Program Structure,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

Overview
********

Common Lisp is a huge language, and Common Lisp systems tend to be
massive and extremely complex.  Emacs Lisp, by contrast, is rather
minimalist in the choice of Lisp features it offers the programmer.  As
Emacs Lisp programmers have grown in number, and the applications they
write have grown more ambitious, it has become clear that Emacs Lisp
could benefit from many of the conveniences of Common Lisp.

  The "CL" package adds a number of Common Lisp functions and control
structures to Emacs Lisp.  While not a 100% complete implementation of
Common Lisp, "CL" adds enough functionality to make Emacs Lisp
programming significantly more convenient.

  Some Common Lisp features have been omitted from this package for
various reasons:

   * Some features are too complex or bulky relative to their benefit
     to Emacs Lisp programmers.  CLOS and Common Lisp streams are fine
     examples of this group.

   * Other features cannot be implemented without modification to the
     Emacs Lisp interpreter itself, such as multiple return values,
     lexical scoping, case-insensitive symbols, and complex numbers.
     The "CL" package generally makes no attempt to emulate these
     features.

   * Some features conflict with existing things in Emacs Lisp.  For
     example, Emacs' `assoc' function is incompatible with the Common
     Lisp `assoc'.  In such cases, this package usually adds the suffix
     `*' to the function name of the Common Lisp version of the
     function (e.g., `assoc*').

  The package described here was written by Dave Gillespie,
`daveg@synaptics.com'.  It is a total rewrite of the original 1986
`cl.el' package by Cesar Quiroz.  Most features of the Quiroz package
have been retained; any incompatibilities are noted in the descriptions
below.  Care has been taken in this version to ensure that each
function is defined efficiently, concisely, and with minimal impact on
the rest of the Emacs environment.

* Menu:

* Usage::                How to use the CL package
* Organization::         The package's five component files
* Installation::         Compiling and installing CL
* Naming Conventions::   Notes on CL function names


File: cl.info,  Node: Usage,  Next: Organization,  Prev: Overview,  Up: Overview

Usage
=====

Lisp code that uses features from the "CL" package should include at
the beginning:

     (require 'cl)

If you want to ensure that the new (Gillespie) version of "CL" is the
one that is present, add an additional `(require 'cl-19)' call:

     (require 'cl)
     (require 'cl-19)

The second call will fail (with "`cl-19.el' not found") if the old
`cl.el' package was in use.

  It is safe to arrange to load "CL" at all times, e.g., in your
`.emacs' file.  But it's a good idea, for portability, to `(require
'cl)' in your code even if you do this.


File: cl.info,  Node: Organization,  Next: Installation,  Prev: Usage,  Up: Overview

Organization
============

The Common Lisp package is organized into four files:

`cl.el'
     This is the "main" file, which contains basic functions and
     information about the package.  This file is relatively
     compact--about 700 lines.

`cl-extra.el'
     This file contains the larger, more complex or unusual functions.
     It is kept separate so that packages which only want to use Common
     Lisp fundamentals like the `cadr' function won't need to pay the
     overhead of loading the more advanced functions.

`cl-seq.el'
     This file contains most of the advanced functions for operating on
     sequences or lists, such as `delete-if' and `assoc*'.

`cl-macs.el'
     This file contains the features of the packages which are macros
     instead of functions.  Macros expand when the caller is compiled,
     not when it is run, so the macros generally only need to be
     present when the byte-compiler is running (or when the macros are
     used in uncompiled code such as a `.emacs' file).  Most of the
     macros of this package are isolated in `cl-macs.el' so that they
     won't take up memory unless you are compiling.

  The file `cl.el' includes all necessary `autoload' commands for the
functions and macros in the other three files.  All you have to do is
`(require 'cl)', and `cl.el' will take care of pulling in the other
files when they are needed.

  There is another file, `cl-compat.el', which defines some routines
from the older `cl.el' package that are no longer present in the new
package.  This includes internal routines like `setelt' and
`zip-lists', deprecated features like `defkeyword', and an emulation of
the old-style multiple-values feature.  *Note Old CL Compatibility::.


File: cl.info,  Node: Installation,  Next: Naming Conventions,  Prev: Organization,  Up: Overview

Installation
============

Installation of the "CL" package is simple:  Just put the byte-compiled
files `cl.elc', `cl-extra.elc', `cl-seq.elc', `cl-macs.elc', and
`cl-compat.elc' into a directory on your `load-path'.

  There are no special requirements to compile this package: The files
do not have to be loaded before they are compiled, nor do they need to
be compiled in any particular order.

  You may choose to put the files into your main `lisp/' directory,
replacing the original `cl.el' file there.  Or, you could put them into
a directory that comes before `lisp/' on your `load-path' so that the
old `cl.el' is effectively hidden.

  Also, format the `cl.texinfo' file and put the resulting Info files
in the `info/' directory or another suitable place.

  You may instead wish to leave this package's components all in their
own directory, and then add this directory to your `load-path' and
(Emacs 19 only) `Info-directory-list'.  Add the directory to the front
of the list so the old "CL" package and its documentation are hidden.


File: cl.info,  Node: Naming Conventions,  Prev: Installation,  Up: Overview

Naming Conventions
==================

Except where noted, all functions defined by this package have the same
names and calling conventions as their Common Lisp counterparts.

  Following is a complete list of functions whose names were changed
from Common Lisp, usually to avoid conflicts with Emacs.  In each case,
a `*' has been appended to the Common Lisp name to obtain the Emacs
name:

     defun*        defsubst*     defmacro*     function*
     member*       assoc*        rassoc*       remove*
     delete*       mapcar*       sort*         floor*
     ceiling*      truncate*     round*        mod*
     rem*          random*

  Internal function and variable names in the package are prefixed by
`cl-'.  Here is a complete list of functions _not_ prefixed by `cl-'
which were not taken from Common Lisp:

     member        delete        remove        remq
     rassoc        floatp-safe   lexical-let   lexical-let*
     callf         callf2        letf          letf*
     defsubst*     defalias      add-hook      eval-when-compile

(Most of these are Emacs 19 features provided to Emacs 18 users, or
introduced, like `remq', for reasons of symmetry with similar features.)

  The following simple functions and macros are defined in `cl.el';
they do not cause other components like `cl-extra' to be loaded.

     eql           floatp-safe   abs           endp
     evenp         oddp          plusp         minusp
     last          butlast       nbutlast      caar .. cddddr
     list*         ldiff         rest          first .. tenth
     member [1]    copy-list     subst         mapcar* [2]
     adjoin [3]    acons         pairlis       when
     unless        pop [4]       push [4]      pushnew [3,4]
     incf [4]      decf [4]      proclaim      declaim
     add-hook

[1] This is the Emacs 19-compatible function, not `member*'.

[2] Only for one sequence argument or two list arguments.

[3] Only if `:test' is `eq', `equal', or unspecified, and `:key' is not
used.

[4] Only when PLACE is a plain variable name.


File: cl.info,  Node: Program Structure,  Next: Predicates,  Prev: Overview,  Up: Top

Program Structure
*****************

This section describes features of the "CL" package which have to do
with programs as a whole: advanced argument lists for functions, and
the `eval-when' construct.

* Menu:

* Argument Lists::       `&key', `&aux', `defun*', `defmacro*'.
* Time of Evaluation::   The `eval-when' construct.
* Function Aliases::     The `defalias' function.


File: cl.info,  Node: Argument Lists,  Next: Time of Evaluation,  Prev: Program Structure,  Up: Program Structure

Argument Lists
==============

Emacs Lisp's notation for argument lists of functions is a subset of
the Common Lisp notation.  As well as the familiar `&optional' and
`&rest' markers, Common Lisp allows you to specify default values for
optional arguments, and it provides the additional markers `&key' and
`&aux'.

  Since argument parsing is built-in to Emacs, there is no way for this
package to implement Common Lisp argument lists seamlessly.  Instead,
this package defines alternates for several Lisp forms which you must
use if you need Common Lisp argument lists.

 - Special Form: defun* name arglist body...
     This form is identical to the regular `defun' form, except that
     ARGLIST is allowed to be a full Common Lisp argument list.  Also,
     the function body is enclosed in an implicit block called NAME;
     *note Blocks and Exits::.

 - Special Form: defsubst* name arglist body...
     This is just like `defun*', except that the function that is
     defined is automatically proclaimed `inline', i.e., calls to it
     may be expanded into in-line code by the byte compiler.  This is
     analogous to the `defsubst' form in Emacs 19; `defsubst*' uses a
     different method (compiler macros) which works in all version of
     Emacs, and also generates somewhat more efficient inline
     expansions.  In particular, `defsubst*' arranges for the
     processing of keyword arguments, default values, etc., to be done
     at compile-time whenever possible.

 - Special Form: defmacro* name arglist body...
     This is identical to the regular `defmacro' form, except that
     ARGLIST is allowed to be a full Common Lisp argument list.  The
     `&environment' keyword is supported as described in Steele.  The
     `&whole' keyword is supported only within destructured lists (see
     below); top-level `&whole' cannot be implemented with the current
     Emacs Lisp interpreter.  The macro expander body is enclosed in an
     implicit block called NAME.

 - Special Form: function* symbol-or-lambda
     This is identical to the regular `function' form, except that if
     the argument is a `lambda' form then that form may use a full
     Common Lisp argument list.

  Also, all forms (such as `defsetf' and `flet') defined in this
package that include ARGLISTs in their syntax allow full Common Lisp
argument lists.

  Note that it is _not_ necessary to use `defun*' in order to have
access to most "CL" features in your function.  These features are
always present; `defun*''s only difference from `defun' is its more
flexible argument lists and its implicit block.

  The full form of a Common Lisp argument list is

     (VAR...
      &optional (VAR INITFORM SVAR)...
      &rest VAR
      &key ((KEYWORD VAR) INITFORM SVAR)...
      &aux (VAR INITFORM)...)

  Each of the five argument list sections is optional.  The SVAR,
INITFORM, and KEYWORD parts are optional; if they are omitted, then
`(VAR)' may be written simply `VAR'.

  The first section consists of zero or more "required" arguments.
These arguments must always be specified in a call to the function;
there is no difference between Emacs Lisp and Common Lisp as far as
required arguments are concerned.

  The second section consists of "optional" arguments.  These arguments
may be specified in the function call; if they are not, INITFORM
specifies the default value used for the argument.  (No INITFORM means
to use `nil' as the default.)  The INITFORM is evaluated with the
bindings for the preceding arguments already established; `(a &optional
(b (1+ a)))' matches one or two arguments, with the second argument
defaulting to one plus the first argument.  If the SVAR is specified,
it is an auxiliary variable which is bound to `t' if the optional
argument was specified, or to `nil' if the argument was omitted.  If
you don't use an SVAR, then there will be no way for your function to
tell whether it was called with no argument, or with the default value
passed explicitly as an argument.

  The third section consists of a single "rest" argument.  If more
arguments were passed to the function than are accounted for by the
required and optional arguments, those extra arguments are collected
into a list and bound to the "rest" argument variable.  Common Lisp's
`&rest' is equivalent to that of Emacs Lisp.  Common Lisp accepts
`&body' as a synonym for `&rest' in macro contexts; this package
accepts it all the time.

  The fourth section consists of "keyword" arguments.  These are
optional arguments which are specified by name rather than positionally
in the argument list.  For example,

     (defun* foo (a &optional b &key c d (e 17)))

defines a function which may be called with one, two, or more
arguments.  The first two arguments are bound to `a' and `b' in the
usual way.  The remaining arguments must be pairs of the form `:c',
`:d', or `:e' followed by the value to be bound to the corresponding
argument variable.  (Symbols whose names begin with a colon are called
"keywords", and they are self-quoting in the same way as `nil' and `t'.)

  For example, the call `(foo 1 2 :d 3 :c 4)' sets the five arguments
to 1, 2, 4, 3, and 17, respectively.  If the same keyword appears more
than once in the function call, the first occurrence takes precedence
over the later ones.  Note that it is not possible to specify keyword
arguments without specifying the optional argument `b' as well, since
`(foo 1 :c 2)' would bind `b' to the keyword `:c', then signal an error
because `2' is not a valid keyword.

  If a KEYWORD symbol is explicitly specified in the argument list as
shown in the above diagram, then that keyword will be used instead of
just the variable name prefixed with a colon.  You can specify a
KEYWORD symbol which does not begin with a colon at all, but such
symbols will not be self-quoting; you will have to quote them
explicitly with an apostrophe in the function call.

  Ordinarily it is an error to pass an unrecognized keyword to a
function, e.g., `(foo 1 2 :c 3 :goober 4)'.  You can ask Lisp to ignore
unrecognized keywords, either by adding the marker `&allow-other-keys'
after the keyword section of the argument list, or by specifying an
`:allow-other-keys' argument in the call whose value is non-`nil'.  If
the function uses both `&rest' and `&key' at the same time, the "rest"
argument is bound to the keyword list as it appears in the call.  For
example:

     (defun* find-thing (thing &rest rest &key need &allow-other-keys)
       (or (apply 'member* thing thing-list :allow-other-keys t rest)
           (if need (error "Thing not found"))))

This function takes a `:need' keyword argument, but also accepts other
keyword arguments which are passed on to the `member*' function.
`allow-other-keys' is used to keep both `find-thing' and `member*' from
complaining about each others' keywords in the arguments.

  As a (significant) performance optimization, this package implements
the scan for keyword arguments by calling `memq' to search for keywords
in a "rest" argument.  Technically speaking, this is incorrect, since
`memq' looks at the odd-numbered values as well as the even-numbered
keywords.  The net effect is that if you happen to pass a keyword symbol
as the _value_ of another keyword argument, where that keyword symbol
happens to equal the name of a valid keyword argument of the same
function, then the keyword parser will become confused.  This minor bug
can only affect you if you use keyword symbols as general-purpose data
in your program; this practice is strongly discouraged in Emacs Lisp.

  The fifth section of the argument list consists of "auxiliary
variables".  These are not really arguments at all, but simply
variables which are bound to `nil' or to the specified INITFORMS during
execution of the function.  There is no difference between the
following two functions, except for a matter of stylistic taste:

     (defun* foo (a b &aux (c (+ a b)) d)
       BODY)
     
     (defun* foo (a b)
       (let ((c (+ a b)) d)
         BODY))

  Argument lists support "destructuring".  In Common Lisp,
destructuring is only allowed with `defmacro'; this package allows it
with `defun*' and other argument lists as well.  In destructuring, any
argument variable (VAR in the above diagram) can be replaced by a list
of variables, or more generally, a recursive argument list.  The
corresponding argument value must be a list whose elements match this
recursive argument list.  For example:

     (defmacro* dolist ((var listform &optional resultform)
                        &rest body)
       ...)

  This says that the first argument of `dolist' must be a list of two
or three items; if there are other arguments as well as this list, they
are stored in `body'.  All features allowed in regular argument lists
are allowed in these recursive argument lists.  In addition, the clause
`&whole VAR' is allowed at the front of a recursive argument list.  It
binds VAR to the whole list being matched; thus `(&whole all a b)'
matches a list of two things, with `a' bound to the first thing, `b'
bound to the second thing, and `all' bound to the list itself.  (Common
Lisp allows `&whole' in top-level `defmacro' argument lists as well,
but Emacs Lisp does not support this usage.)

  One last feature of destructuring is that the argument list may be
dotted, so that the argument list `(a b . c)' is functionally
equivalent to `(a b &rest c)'.

  If the optimization quality `safety' is set to 0 (*note
Declarations::), error checking for wrong number of arguments and
invalid keyword arguments is disabled.  By default, argument lists are
rigorously checked.


File: cl.info,  Node: Time of Evaluation,  Next: Function Aliases,  Prev: Argument Lists,  Up: Program Structure

Time of Evaluation
==================

Normally, the byte-compiler does not actually execute the forms in a
file it compiles.  For example, if a file contains `(setq foo t)', the
act of compiling it will not actually set `foo' to `t'.  This is true
even if the `setq' was a top-level form (i.e., not enclosed in a
`defun' or other form).  Sometimes, though, you would like to have
certain top-level forms evaluated at compile-time.  For example, the
compiler effectively evaluates `defmacro' forms at compile-time so that
later parts of the file can refer to the macros that are defined.

 - Special Form: eval-when (situations...) forms...
     This form controls when the body FORMS are evaluated.  The
     SITUATIONS list may contain any set of the symbols `compile',
     `load', and `eval' (or their long-winded ANSI equivalents,
     `:compile-toplevel', `:load-toplevel', and `:execute').

     The `eval-when' form is handled differently depending on whether
     or not it is being compiled as a top-level form.  Specifically, it
     gets special treatment if it is being compiled by a command such
     as `byte-compile-file' which compiles files or buffers of code,
     and it appears either literally at the top level of the file or
     inside a top-level `progn'.

     For compiled top-level `eval-when's, the body FORMS are executed
     at compile-time if `compile' is in the SITUATIONS list, and the
     FORMS are written out to the file (to be executed at load-time) if
     `load' is in the SITUATIONS list.

     For non-compiled-top-level forms, only the `eval' situation is
     relevant.  (This includes forms executed by the interpreter, forms
     compiled with `byte-compile' rather than `byte-compile-file', and
     non-top-level forms.)  The `eval-when' acts like a `progn' if
     `eval' is specified, and like `nil' (ignoring the body FORMS) if
     not.

     The rules become more subtle when `eval-when's are nested; consult
     Steele (second edition) for the gruesome details (and some
     gruesome examples).

     Some simple examples:

          ;; Top-level forms in foo.el:
          (eval-when (compile)           (setq foo1 'bar))
          (eval-when (load)              (setq foo2 'bar))
          (eval-when (compile load)      (setq foo3 'bar))
          (eval-when (eval)              (setq foo4 'bar))
          (eval-when (eval compile)      (setq foo5 'bar))
          (eval-when (eval load)         (setq foo6 'bar))
          (eval-when (eval compile load) (setq foo7 'bar))

     When `foo.el' is compiled, these variables will be set during the
     compilation itself:

          foo1  foo3  foo5  foo7      ; `compile'

     When `foo.elc' is loaded, these variables will be set:

          foo2  foo3  foo6  foo7      ; `load'

     And if `foo.el' is loaded uncompiled, these variables will be set:

          foo4  foo5  foo6  foo7      ; `eval'

     If these seven `eval-when's had been, say, inside a `defun', then
     the first three would have been equivalent to `nil' and the last
     four would have been equivalent to the corresponding `setq's.

     Note that `(eval-when (load eval) ...)' is equivalent to `(progn
     ...)' in all contexts.  The compiler treats certain top-level
     forms, like `defmacro' (sort-of) and `require', as if they were
     wrapped in `(eval-when (compile load eval) ...)'.

  Emacs 19 includes two special forms related to `eval-when'.  One of
these, `eval-when-compile', is not quite equivalent to any `eval-when'
construct and is described below.  This package defines a version of
`eval-when-compile' for the benefit of Emacs 18 users.

  The other form, `(eval-and-compile ...)', is exactly equivalent to
`(eval-when (compile load eval) ...)' and so is not itself defined by
this package.

 - Special Form: eval-when-compile forms...
     The FORMS are evaluated at compile-time; at execution time, this
     form acts like a quoted constant of the resulting value.  Used at
     top-level, `eval-when-compile' is just like `eval-when (compile
     eval)'.  In other contexts, `eval-when-compile' allows code to be
     evaluated once at compile-time for efficiency or other reasons.

     This form is similar to the `#.' syntax of true Common Lisp.

 - Special Form: load-time-value form
     The FORM is evaluated at load-time; at execution time, this form
     acts like a quoted constant of the resulting value.

     Early Common Lisp had a `#,' syntax that was similar to this, but
     ANSI Common Lisp replaced it with `load-time-value' and gave it
     more well-defined semantics.

     In a compiled file, `load-time-value' arranges for FORM to be
     evaluated when the `.elc' file is loaded and then used as if it
     were a quoted constant.  In code compiled by `byte-compile' rather
     than `byte-compile-file', the effect is identical to
     `eval-when-compile'.  In uncompiled code, both `eval-when-compile'
     and `load-time-value' act exactly like `progn'.

          (defun report ()
            (insert "This function was executed on: "
                    (current-time-string)
                    ", compiled on: "
                    (eval-when-compile (current-time-string))
                    ;; or '#.(current-time-string) in real Common Lisp
                    ", and loaded on: "
                    (load-time-value (current-time-string))))

     Byte-compiled, the above defun will result in the following code
     (or its compiled equivalent, of course) in the `.elc' file:

          (setq --temp-- (current-time-string))
          (defun report ()
            (insert "This function was executed on: "
                    (current-time-string)
                    ", compiled on: "
                    '"Wed Jun 23 18:33:43 1993"
                    ", and loaded on: "
                    --temp--))


File: cl.info,  Node: Function Aliases,  Prev: Time of Evaluation,  Up: Program Structure

Function Aliases
================

This section describes a feature from GNU Emacs 19 which this package
makes available in other versions of Emacs.

 - Function: defalias symbol function
     This function sets SYMBOL's function cell to FUNCTION.  It is
     equivalent to `fset', except that in GNU Emacs 19 it also records
     the setting in `load-history' so that it can be undone by a later
     `unload-feature'.

     In other versions of Emacs, `defalias' is a synonym for `fset'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Predicates,  Next: Control Structure,  Prev: Program Structure,  Up: Top

Predicates
**********

This section describes functions for testing whether various facts are
true or false.

* Menu:

* Type Predicates::      `typep', `deftype', and `coerce'
* Equality Predicates::  `eql' and `equalp'


File: cl.info,  Node: Type Predicates,  Next: Equality Predicates,  Prev: Predicates,  Up: Predicates

Type Predicates
===============

The "CL" package defines a version of the Common Lisp `typep' predicate.

 - Function: typep object type
     Check if OBJECT is of type TYPE, where TYPE is a (quoted) type
     name of the sort used by Common Lisp.  For example, `(typep foo
     'integer)' is equivalent to `(integerp foo)'.

  The TYPE argument to the above function is either a symbol or a list
beginning with a symbol.

   * If the type name is a symbol, Emacs appends `-p' to the symbol
     name to form the name of a predicate function for testing the
     type.  (Built-in predicates whose names end in `p' rather than
     `-p' are used when appropriate.)

   * The type symbol `t' stands for the union of all types.  `(typep
     OBJECT t)' is always true.  Likewise, the type symbol `nil' stands
     for nothing at all, and `(typep OBJECT nil)' is always false.

   * The type symbol `null' represents the symbol `nil'.  Thus `(typep
     OBJECT 'null)' is equivalent to `(null OBJECT)'.

   * The type symbol `real' is a synonym for `number', and `fixnum' is
     a synonym for `integer'.

   * The type symbols `character' and `string-char' match characters.
     In Emacs-19 and XEmacs-19, characters are the same thing as
     integers in the range 0-255.  In XEmacs-20, where characters are a
     first-class data type, this checks for actual characters, and
     `(typep 8BIT-INTEGER 'character)' will return `nil'.

   * The type symbol `float' uses the `floatp-safe' predicate defined
     by this package rather than `floatp', so it will work correctly
     even in Emacs versions without floating-point support.

   * The type list `(integer LOW HIGH)' represents all integers between
     LOW and HIGH, inclusive.  Either bound may be a list of a single
     integer to specify an exclusive limit, or a `*' to specify no
     limit.  The type `(integer * *)' is thus equivalent to `integer'.

   * Likewise, lists beginning with `float', `real', or `number'
     represent numbers of that type falling in a particular range.

   * Lists beginning with `and', `or', and `not' form combinations of
     types.  For example, `(or integer (float 0 *))' represents all
     objects that are integers or non-negative floats.

   * Lists beginning with `member' or `member*' represent objects `eql'
     to any of the following values.  For example, `(member 1 2 3 4)'
     is equivalent to `(integer 1 4)', and `(member nil)' is equivalent
     to `null'.

   * Lists of the form `(satisfies PREDICATE)' represent all objects
     for which PREDICATE returns true when called with that object as
     an argument.

  The following function and macro (not technically predicates) are
related to `typep'.

 - Function: coerce object type
     This function attempts to convert OBJECT to the specified TYPE.
     If OBJECT is already of that type as determined by `typep', it is
     simply returned.  Otherwise, certain types of conversions will be
     made:  If TYPE is any sequence type (`string', `list', etc.) then
     OBJECT will be converted to that type if possible.  If TYPE is
     `character', then strings of length one and symbols with
     one-character names can be coerced.  If TYPE is `float', then
     integers can be coerced in versions of Emacs that support floats.
     In all other circumstances, `coerce' signals an error.

 - Special Form: deftype name arglist forms...
     This macro defines a new type called NAME.  It is similar to
     `defmacro' in many ways; when NAME is encountered as a type name,
     the body FORMS are evaluated and should return a type specifier
     that is equivalent to the type.  The ARGLIST is a Common Lisp
     argument list of the sort accepted by `defmacro*'.  The type
     specifier `(NAME ARGS...)' is expanded by calling the expander
     with those arguments; the type symbol `NAME' is expanded by
     calling the expander with no arguments.  The ARGLIST is processed
     the same as for `defmacro*' except that optional arguments without
     explicit defaults use `*' instead of `nil' as the "default"
     default.  Some examples:

          (deftype null () '(satisfies null))    ; predefined
          (deftype list () '(or null cons))      ; predefined
          (deftype unsigned-byte (&optional bits)
            (list 'integer 0 (if (eq bits '*) bits (1- (lsh 1 bits)))))
          (unsigned-byte 8)  ==  (integer 0 255)
          (unsigned-byte)  ==  (integer 0 *)
          unsigned-byte  ==  (integer 0 *)

     The last example shows how the Common Lisp `unsigned-byte' type
     specifier could be implemented if desired; this package does not
     implement `unsigned-byte' by default.

  The `typecase' and `check-type' macros also use type names.  *Note
Conditionals::.  *Note Assertions::.  The `map', `concatenate', and
`merge' functions take type-name arguments to specify the type of
sequence to return.  *Note Sequences::.


File: cl.info,  Node: Equality Predicates,  Prev: Type Predicates,  Up: Predicates

Equality Predicates
===================

This package defines two Common Lisp predicates, `eql' and `equalp'.

 - Function: eql a b
     This function is almost the same as `eq', except that if A and B
     are numbers of the same type, it compares them for numeric
     equality (as if by `equal' instead of `eq').  This makes a
     difference only for versions of Emacs that are compiled with
     floating-point support, such as Emacs 19.  Emacs floats are
     allocated objects just like cons cells, which means that `(eq 3.0
     3.0)' will not necessarily be true--if the two `3.0's were
     allocated separately, the pointers will be different even though
     the numbers are the same.  But `(eql 3.0 3.0)' will always be true.

     The types of the arguments must match, so `(eql 3 3.0)' is still
     false.

     Note that Emacs integers are "direct" rather than allocated, which
     basically means `(eq 3 3)' will always be true.  Thus `eq' and
     `eql' behave differently only if floating-point numbers are
     involved, and are indistinguishable on Emacs versions that don't
     support floats.

     There is a slight inconsistency with Common Lisp in the treatment
     of positive and negative zeros.  Some machines, notably those with
     IEEE standard arithmetic, represent `+0' and `-0' as distinct
     values.  Normally this doesn't matter because the standard
     specifies that `(= 0.0 -0.0)' should always be true, and this is
     indeed what Emacs Lisp and Common Lisp do.  But the Common Lisp
     standard states that `(eql 0.0 -0.0)' and `(equal 0.0 -0.0)' should
     be false on IEEE-like machines; Emacs Lisp does not do this, and in
     fact the only known way to distinguish between the two zeros in
     Emacs Lisp is to `format' them and check for a minus sign.

 - Function: equalp a b
     This function is a more flexible version of `equal'.  In
     particular, it compares strings and characters case-insensitively,
     and it compares numbers without regard to type (so that `(equalp 3
     3.0)' is true).  Vectors and conses are compared recursively.  All
     other objects are compared as if by `equal'.

     This function differs from Common Lisp `equalp' in several
     respects.  In keeping with the idea that strings are less
     vector-like in Emacs Lisp, this package's `equalp' also will not
     compare strings against vectors of integers.

  Also note that the Common Lisp functions `member' and `assoc' use
`eql' to compare elements, whereas Emacs Lisp follows the MacLisp
tradition and uses `equal' for these two functions.  In Emacs, use
`member*' and `assoc*' to get functions which use `eql' for comparisons.


File: cl.info,  Node: Control Structure,  Next: Macros,  Prev: Predicates,  Up: Top

Control Structure
*****************

The features described in the following sections implement various
advanced control structures, including the powerful `setf' facility and
a number of looping and conditional constructs.

* Menu:

* Assignment::             The `psetq' form
* Generalized Variables::  `setf', `incf', `push', etc.
* Variable Bindings::      `progv', `lexical-let', `flet', `macrolet'
* Conditionals::           `when', `unless', `case', `typecase'
* Blocks and Exits::       `block', `return', `return-from'
* Iteration::              `do', `dotimes', `dolist', `do-symbols'
* Loop Facility::          The Common Lisp `loop' macro
* Multiple Values::        `values', `multiple-value-bind', etc.


File: cl.info,  Node: Assignment,  Next: Generalized Variables,  Prev: Control Structure,  Up: Control Structure

Assignment
==========

The `psetq' form is just like `setq', except that multiple assignments
are done in parallel rather than sequentially.

 - Special Form: psetq [symbol form]...
     This special form (actually a macro) is used to assign to several
     variables simultaneously.  Given only one SYMBOL and FORM, it has
     the same effect as `setq'.  Given several SYMBOL and FORM pairs,
     it evaluates all the FORMs in advance and then stores the
     corresponding variables afterwards.

          (setq x 2 y 3)
          (setq x (+ x y)  y (* x y))
          x
               => 5
          y                     ; `y' was computed after `x' was set.
               => 15
          (setq x 2 y 3)
          (psetq x (+ x y)  y (* x y))
          x
               => 5
          y                     ; `y' was computed before `x' was set.
               => 6

     The simplest use of `psetq' is `(psetq x y y x)', which exchanges
     the values of two variables.  (The `rotatef' form provides an even
     more convenient way to swap two variables; *note Modify Macros::.)

     `psetq' always returns `nil'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Generalized Variables,  Next: Variable Bindings,  Prev: Assignment,  Up: Control Structure

Generalized Variables
=====================

A "generalized variable" or "place form" is one of the many places in
Lisp memory where values can be stored.  The simplest place form is a
regular Lisp variable.  But the cars and cdrs of lists, elements of
arrays, properties of symbols, and many other locations are also places
where Lisp values are stored.

  The `setf' form is like `setq', except that it accepts arbitrary
place forms on the left side rather than just symbols.  For example,
`(setf (car a) b)' sets the car of `a' to `b', doing the same operation
as `(setcar a b)' but without having to remember two separate functions
for setting and accessing every type of place.

  Generalized variables are analogous to "lvalues" in the C language,
where `x = a[i]' gets an element from an array and `a[i] = x' stores an
element using the same notation.  Just as certain forms like `a[i]' can
be lvalues in C, there is a set of forms that can be generalized
variables in Lisp.

* Menu:

* Basic Setf::         `setf' and place forms
* Modify Macros::      `incf', `push', `rotatef', `letf', `callf', etc.
* Customizing Setf::   `define-modify-macro', `defsetf', `define-setf-method'


File: cl.info,  Node: Basic Setf,  Next: Modify Macros,  Prev: Generalized Variables,  Up: Generalized Variables

Basic Setf
----------

The `setf' macro is the most basic way to operate on generalized
variables.

 - Special Form: setf [place form]...
     This macro evaluates FORM and stores it in PLACE, which must be a
     valid generalized variable form.  If there are several PLACE and
     FORM pairs, the assignments are done sequentially just as with
     `setq'.  `setf' returns the value of the last FORM.

     The following Lisp forms will work as generalized variables, and
     so may legally appear in the PLACE argument of `setf':

        * A symbol naming a variable.  In other words, `(setf x y)' is
          exactly equivalent to `(setq x y)', and `setq' itself is
          strictly speaking redundant now that `setf' exists.  Many
          programmers continue to prefer `setq' for setting simple
          variables, though, purely for stylistic or historical reasons.
          The form `(setf x y)' actually expands to `(setq x y)', so
          there is no performance penalty for using it in compiled code.

        * A call to any of the following Lisp functions:

               car                 cdr                 caar .. cddddr
               nth                 rest                first .. tenth
               aref                elt                 nthcdr
               symbol-function     symbol-value        symbol-plist
               get                 getf                gethash
               subseq

          Note that for `nthcdr' and `getf', the list argument of the
          function must itself be a valid PLACE form.  For example,
          `(setf (nthcdr 0 foo) 7)' will set `foo' itself to 7.  Note
          that `push' and `pop' on an `nthcdr' place can be used to
          insert or delete at any position in a list.  The use of
          `nthcdr' as a PLACE form is an extension to standard Common
          Lisp.

        * The following Emacs-specific functions are also `setf'-able.
          (Some of these are defined only in Emacs 19 or only in
          XEmacs.)

               buffer-file-name                  marker-position
               buffer-modified-p                 match-data
               buffer-name                       mouse-position
               buffer-string                     overlay-end
               buffer-substring                  overlay-get
               current-buffer                    overlay-start
               current-case-table                point
               current-column                    point-marker
               current-global-map                point-max
               current-input-mode                point-min
               current-local-map                 process-buffer
               current-window-configuration      process-filter
               default-file-modes                process-sentinel
               default-value                     read-mouse-position
               documentation-property            screen-height
               extent-data                       screen-menubar
               extent-end-position               screen-width
               extent-start-position             selected-window
               face-background                   selected-screen
               face-background-pixmap            selected-frame
               face-font                         standard-case-table
               face-foreground                   syntax-table
               face-underline-p                  window-buffer
               file-modes                        window-dedicated-p
               frame-height                      window-display-table
               frame-parameters                  window-height
               frame-visible-p                   window-hscroll
               frame-width                       window-point
               get-register                      window-start
               getenv                            window-width
               global-key-binding                x-get-cut-buffer
               keymap-parent                     x-get-cutbuffer
               local-key-binding                 x-get-secondary-selection
               mark                              x-get-selection
               mark-marker

          Most of these have directly corresponding "set" functions,
          like `use-local-map' for `current-local-map', or `goto-char'
          for `point'.  A few, like `point-min', expand to longer
          sequences of code when they are `setf''d (`(narrow-to-region
          x (point-max))' in this case).

        * A call of the form `(substring SUBPLACE N [M])', where
          SUBPLACE is itself a legal generalized variable whose current
          value is a string, and where the value stored is also a
          string.  The new string is spliced into the specified part of
          the destination string.  For example:

               (setq a (list "hello" "world"))
                    => ("hello" "world")
               (cadr a)
                    => "world"
               (substring (cadr a) 2 4)
                    => "rl"
               (setf (substring (cadr a) 2 4) "o")
                    => "o"
               (cadr a)
                    => "wood"
               a
                    => ("hello" "wood")

          The generalized variable `buffer-substring', listed above,
          also works in this way by replacing a portion of the current
          buffer.

        * A call of the form `(apply 'FUNC ...)' or `(apply (function
          FUNC) ...)', where FUNC is a `setf'-able function whose store
          function is "suitable" in the sense described in Steele's
          book; since none of the standard Emacs place functions are
          suitable in this sense, this feature is only interesting when
          used with places you define yourself with
          `define-setf-method' or the long form of `defsetf'.

        * A macro call, in which case the macro is expanded and `setf'
          is applied to the resulting form.

        * Any form for which a `defsetf' or `define-setf-method' has
          been made.

     Using any forms other than these in the PLACE argument to `setf'
     will signal an error.

     The `setf' macro takes care to evaluate all subforms in the proper
     left-to-right order; for example,

          (setf (aref vec (incf i)) i)

     looks like it will evaluate `(incf i)' exactly once, before the
     following access to `i'; the `setf' expander will insert temporary
     variables as necessary to ensure that it does in fact work this
     way no matter what setf-method is defined for `aref'.  (In this
     case, `aset' would be used and no such steps would be necessary
     since `aset' takes its arguments in a convenient order.)

     However, if the PLACE form is a macro which explicitly evaluates
     its arguments in an unusual order, this unusual order will be
     preserved.  Adapting an example from Steele, given

          (defmacro wrong-order (x y) (list 'aref y x))

     the form `(setf (wrong-order A B) 17)' will evaluate B first, then
     A, just as in an actual call to `wrong-order'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Modify Macros,  Next: Customizing Setf,  Prev: Basic Setf,  Up: Generalized Variables

Modify Macros
-------------

This package defines a number of other macros besides `setf' that
operate on generalized variables.  Many are interesting and useful even
when the PLACE is just a variable name.

 - Special Form: psetf [place form]...
     This macro is to `setf' what `psetq' is to `setq': When several
     PLACEs and FORMs are involved, the assignments take place in
     parallel rather than sequentially.  Specifically, all subforms are
     evaluated from left to right, then all the assignments are done
     (in an undefined order).

 - Special Form: incf place &optional x
     This macro increments the number stored in PLACE by one, or by X
     if specified.  The incremented value is returned.  For example,
     `(incf i)' is equivalent to `(setq i (1+ i))', and `(incf (car x)
     2)' is equivalent to `(setcar x (+ (car x) 2))'.

     Once again, care is taken to preserve the "apparent" order of
     evaluation.  For example,

          (incf (aref vec (incf i)))

     appears to increment `i' once, then increment the element of `vec'
     addressed by `i'; this is indeed exactly what it does, which means
     the above form is _not_ equivalent to the "obvious" expansion,

          (setf (aref vec (incf i)) (1+ (aref vec (incf i))))   ; Wrong!

     but rather to something more like

          (let ((temp (incf i)))
            (setf (aref vec temp) (1+ (aref vec temp))))

     Again, all of this is taken care of automatically by `incf' and
     the other generalized-variable macros.

     As a more Emacs-specific example of `incf', the expression `(incf
     (point) N)' is essentially equivalent to `(forward-char N)'.

 - Special Form: decf place &optional x
     This macro decrements the number stored in PLACE by one, or by X
     if specified.

 - Special Form: pop place
     This macro removes and returns the first element of the list stored
     in PLACE.  It is analogous to `(prog1 (car PLACE) (setf PLACE (cdr
     PLACE)))', except that it takes care to evaluate all subforms only
     once.

 - Special Form: push x place
     This macro inserts X at the front of the list stored in PLACE.  It
     is analogous to `(setf PLACE (cons X PLACE))', except for
     evaluation of the subforms.

 - Special Form: pushnew x place &key :test :test-not :key
     This macro inserts X at the front of the list stored in PLACE, but
     only if X was not `eql' to any existing element of the list.  The
     optional keyword arguments are interpreted in the same way as for
     `adjoin'.  *Note Lists as Sets::.

 - Special Form: shiftf place... newvalue
     This macro shifts the PLACEs left by one, shifting in the value of
     NEWVALUE (which may be any Lisp expression, not just a generalized
     variable), and returning the value shifted out of the first PLACE.
     Thus, `(shiftf A B C D)' is equivalent to

          (prog1
              A
            (psetf A B
                   B C
                   C D))

     except that the subforms of A, B, and C are actually evaluated
     only once each and in the apparent order.

 - Special Form: rotatef place...
     This macro rotates the PLACEs left by one in circular fashion.
     Thus, `(rotatef A B C D)' is equivalent to

          (psetf A B
                 B C
                 C D
                 D A)

     except for the evaluation of subforms.  `rotatef' always returns
     `nil'.  Note that `(rotatef A B)' conveniently exchanges A and B.

  The following macros were invented for this package; they have no
analogues in Common Lisp.

 - Special Form: letf (bindings...) forms...
     This macro is analogous to `let', but for generalized variables
     rather than just symbols.  Each BINDING should be of the form
     `(PLACE VALUE)'; the original contents of the PLACEs are saved,
     the VALUEs are stored in them, and then the body FORMs are
     executed.  Afterwards, the PLACES are set back to their original
     saved contents.  This cleanup happens even if the FORMs exit
     irregularly due to a `throw' or an error.

     For example,

          (letf (((point) (point-min))
                 (a 17))
            ...)

     moves "point" in the current buffer to the beginning of the buffer,
     and also binds `a' to 17 (as if by a normal `let', since `a' is
     just a regular variable).  After the body exits, `a' is set back
     to its original value and point is moved back to its original
     position.

     Note that `letf' on `(point)' is not quite like a
     `save-excursion', as the latter effectively saves a marker which
     tracks insertions and deletions in the buffer.  Actually, a `letf'
     of `(point-marker)' is much closer to this behavior.  (`point' and
     `point-marker' are equivalent as `setf' places; each will accept
     either an integer or a marker as the stored value.)

     Since generalized variables look like lists, `let''s shorthand of
     using `foo' for `(foo nil)' as a BINDING would be ambiguous in
     `letf' and is not allowed.

     However, a BINDING specifier may be a one-element list `(PLACE)',
     which is similar to `(PLACE PLACE)'.  In other words, the PLACE is
     not disturbed on entry to the body, and the only effect of the
     `letf' is to restore the original value of PLACE afterwards.  (The
     redundant access-and-store suggested by the `(PLACE PLACE)'
     example does not actually occur.)

     In most cases, the PLACE must have a well-defined value on entry
     to the `letf' form.  The only exceptions are plain variables and
     calls to `symbol-value' and `symbol-function'.  If the symbol is
     not bound on entry, it is simply made unbound by `makunbound' or
     `fmakunbound' on exit.

 - Special Form: letf* (bindings...) forms...
     This macro is to `letf' what `let*' is to `let': It does the
     bindings in sequential rather than parallel order.

 - Special Form: callf FUNCTION PLACE ARGS...
     This is the "generic" modify macro.  It calls FUNCTION, which
     should be an unquoted function name, macro name, or lambda.  It
     passes PLACE and ARGS as arguments, and assigns the result back to
     PLACE.  For example, `(incf PLACE N)' is the same as `(callf +
     PLACE N)'.  Some more examples:

          (callf abs my-number)
          (callf concat (buffer-name) "<" (int-to-string n) ">")
          (callf union happy-people (list joe bob) :test 'same-person)

     *Note Customizing Setf::, for `define-modify-macro', a way to
     create even more concise notations for modify macros.  Note again
     that `callf' is an extension to standard Common Lisp.

 - Special Form: callf2 FUNCTION ARG1 PLACE ARGS...
     This macro is like `callf', except that PLACE is the _second_
     argument of FUNCTION rather than the first.  For example, `(push X
     PLACE)' is equivalent to `(callf2 cons X PLACE)'.

  The `callf' and `callf2' macros serve as building blocks for other
macros like `incf', `pushnew', and `define-modify-macro'.  The `letf'
and `letf*' macros are used in the processing of symbol macros; *note
Macro Bindings::.


File: cl.info,  Node: Customizing Setf,  Prev: Modify Macros,  Up: Generalized Variables

Customizing Setf
----------------

Common Lisp defines three macros, `define-modify-macro', `defsetf', and
`define-setf-method', that allow the user to extend generalized
variables in various ways.

 - Special Form: define-modify-macro name arglist function [doc-string]
     This macro defines a "read-modify-write" macro similar to `incf'
     and `decf'.  The macro NAME is defined to take a PLACE argument
     followed by additional arguments described by ARGLIST.  The call

          (NAME PLACE ARGS...)

     will be expanded to

          (callf FUNC PLACE ARGS...)

     which in turn is roughly equivalent to

          (setf PLACE (FUNC PLACE ARGS...))

     For example:

          (define-modify-macro incf (&optional (n 1)) +)
          (define-modify-macro concatf (&rest args) concat)

     Note that `&key' is not allowed in ARGLIST, but `&rest' is
     sufficient to pass keywords on to the function.

     Most of the modify macros defined by Common Lisp do not exactly
     follow the pattern of `define-modify-macro'.  For example, `push'
     takes its arguments in the wrong order, and `pop' is completely
     irregular.  You can define these macros "by hand" using
     `get-setf-method', or consult the source file `cl-macs.el' to see
     how to use the internal `setf' building blocks.

 - Special Form: defsetf access-fn update-fn
     This is the simpler of two `defsetf' forms.  Where ACCESS-FN is
     the name of a function which accesses a place, this declares
     UPDATE-FN to be the corresponding store function.  From now on,

          (setf (ACCESS-FN ARG1 ARG2 ARG3) VALUE)

     will be expanded to

          (UPDATE-FN ARG1 ARG2 ARG3 VALUE)

     The UPDATE-FN is required to be either a true function, or a macro
     which evaluates its arguments in a function-like way.  Also, the
     UPDATE-FN is expected to return VALUE as its result.  Otherwise,
     the above expansion would not obey the rules for the way `setf' is
     supposed to behave.

     As a special (non-Common-Lisp) extension, a third argument of `t'
     to `defsetf' says that the `update-fn''s return value is not
     suitable, so that the above `setf' should be expanded to something
     more like

          (let ((temp VALUE))
            (UPDATE-FN ARG1 ARG2 ARG3 temp)
            temp)

     Some examples of the use of `defsetf', drawn from the standard
     suite of setf methods, are:

          (defsetf car setcar)
          (defsetf symbol-value set)
          (defsetf buffer-name rename-buffer t)

 - Special Form: defsetf access-fn arglist (store-var) forms...
     This is the second, more complex, form of `defsetf'.  It is rather
     like `defmacro' except for the additional STORE-VAR argument.  The
     FORMS should return a Lisp form which stores the value of
     STORE-VAR into the generalized variable formed by a call to
     ACCESS-FN with arguments described by ARGLIST.  The FORMS may
     begin with a string which documents the `setf' method (analogous
     to the doc string that appears at the front of a function).

     For example, the simple form of `defsetf' is shorthand for

          (defsetf ACCESS-FN (&rest args) (store)
            (append '(UPDATE-FN) args (list store)))

     The Lisp form that is returned can access the arguments from
     ARGLIST and STORE-VAR in an unrestricted fashion; macros like
     `setf' and `incf' which invoke this setf-method will insert
     temporary variables as needed to make sure the apparent order of
     evaluation is preserved.

     Another example drawn from the standard package:

          (defsetf nth (n x) (store)
            (list 'setcar (list 'nthcdr n x) store))

 - Special Form: define-setf-method access-fn arglist forms...
     This is the most general way to create new place forms.  When a
     `setf' to ACCESS-FN with arguments described by ARGLIST is
     expanded, the FORMS are evaluated and must return a list of five
     items:

       1. A list of "temporary variables".

       2. A list of "value forms" corresponding to the temporary
          variables above.  The temporary variables will be bound to
          these value forms as the first step of any operation on the
          generalized variable.

       3. A list of exactly one "store variable" (generally obtained
          from a call to `gensym').

       4. A Lisp form which stores the contents of the store variable
          into the generalized variable, assuming the temporaries have
          been bound as described above.

       5. A Lisp form which accesses the contents of the generalized
          variable, assuming the temporaries have been bound.

     This is exactly like the Common Lisp macro of the same name,
     except that the method returns a list of five values rather than
     the five values themselves, since Emacs Lisp does not support
     Common Lisp's notion of multiple return values.

     Once again, the FORMS may begin with a documentation string.

     A setf-method should be maximally conservative with regard to
     temporary variables.  In the setf-methods generated by `defsetf',
     the second return value is simply the list of arguments in the
     place form, and the first return value is a list of a
     corresponding number of temporary variables generated by `gensym'.
     Macros like `setf' and `incf' which use this setf-method will
     optimize away most temporaries that turn out to be unnecessary, so
     there is little reason for the setf-method itself to optimize.

 - Function: get-setf-method place &optional env
     This function returns the setf-method for PLACE, by invoking the
     definition previously recorded by `defsetf' or
     `define-setf-method'.  The result is a list of five values as
     described above.  You can use this function to build your own
     `incf'-like modify macros.  (Actually, it is better to use the
     internal functions `cl-setf-do-modify' and `cl-setf-do-store',
     which are a bit easier to use and which also do a number of
     optimizations; consult the source code for the `incf' function for
     a simple example.)

     The argument ENV specifies the "environment" to be passed on to
     `macroexpand' if `get-setf-method' should need to expand a macro
     in PLACE.  It should come from an `&environment' argument to the
     macro or setf-method that called `get-setf-method'.

     See also the source code for the setf-methods for `apply' and
     `substring', each of which works by calling `get-setf-method' on a
     simpler case, then massaging the result in various ways.

  Modern Common Lisp defines a second, independent way to specify the
`setf' behavior of a function, namely "`setf' functions" whose names
are lists `(setf NAME)' rather than symbols.  For example, `(defun
(setf foo) ...)' defines the function that is used when `setf' is
applied to `foo'.  This package does not currently support `setf'
functions.  In particular, it is a compile-time error to use `setf' on
a form which has not already been `defsetf''d or otherwise declared; in
newer Common Lisps, this would not be an error since the function
`(setf FUNC)' might be defined later.


File: cl.info,  Node: Variable Bindings,  Next: Conditionals,  Prev: Generalized Variables,  Up: Control Structure

Variable Bindings
=================

These Lisp forms make bindings to variables and function names,
analogous to Lisp's built-in `let' form.

  *Note Modify Macros::, for the `letf' and `letf*' forms which are
also related to variable bindings.

* Menu:

* Dynamic Bindings::     The `progv' form
* Lexical Bindings::     `lexical-let' and lexical closures
* Function Bindings::    `flet' and `labels'
* Macro Bindings::       `macrolet' and `symbol-macrolet'


File: cl.info,  Node: Dynamic Bindings,  Next: Lexical Bindings,  Prev: Variable Bindings,  Up: Variable Bindings

Dynamic Bindings
----------------

The standard `let' form binds variables whose names are known at
compile-time.  The `progv' form provides an easy way to bind variables
whose names are computed at run-time.

 - Special Form: progv symbols values forms...
     This form establishes `let'-style variable bindings on a set of
     variables computed at run-time.  The expressions SYMBOLS and
     VALUES are evaluated, and must return lists of symbols and values,
     respectively.  The symbols are bound to the corresponding values
     for the duration of the body FORMs.  If VALUES is shorter than
     SYMBOLS, the last few symbols are made unbound (as if by
     `makunbound') inside the body.  If SYMBOLS is shorter than VALUES,
     the excess values are ignored.


File: cl.info,  Node: Lexical Bindings,  Next: Function Bindings,  Prev: Dynamic Bindings,  Up: Variable Bindings

Lexical Bindings
----------------

The "CL" package defines the following macro which more closely follows
the Common Lisp `let' form:

 - Special Form: lexical-let (bindings...) forms...
     This form is exactly like `let' except that the bindings it
     establishes are purely lexical.  Lexical bindings are similar to
     local variables in a language like C:  Only the code physically
     within the body of the `lexical-let' (after macro expansion) may
     refer to the bound variables.

          (setq a 5)
          (defun foo (b) (+ a b))
          (let ((a 2)) (foo a))
               => 4
          (lexical-let ((a 2)) (foo a))
               => 7

     In this example, a regular `let' binding of `a' actually makes a
     temporary change to the global variable `a', so `foo' is able to
     see the binding of `a' to 2.  But `lexical-let' actually creates a
     distinct local variable `a' for use within its body, without any
     effect on the global variable of the same name.

     The most important use of lexical bindings is to create "closures".
     A closure is a function object that refers to an outside lexical
     variable.  For example:

          (defun make-adder (n)
            (lexical-let ((n n))
              (function (lambda (m) (+ n m)))))
          (setq add17 (make-adder 17))
          (funcall add17 4)
               => 21

     The call `(make-adder 17)' returns a function object which adds 17
     to its argument.  If `let' had been used instead of `lexical-let',
     the function object would have referred to the global `n', which
     would have been bound to 17 only during the call to `make-adder'
     itself.

          (defun make-counter ()
            (lexical-let ((n 0))
              (function* (lambda (&optional (m 1)) (incf n m)))))
          (setq count-1 (make-counter))
          (funcall count-1 3)
               => 3
          (funcall count-1 14)
               => 17
          (setq count-2 (make-counter))
          (funcall count-2 5)
               => 5
          (funcall count-1 2)
               => 19
          (funcall count-2)
               => 6

     Here we see that each call to `make-counter' creates a distinct
     local variable `n', which serves as a private counter for the
     function object that is returned.

     Closed-over lexical variables persist until the last reference to
     them goes away, just like all other Lisp objects.  For example,
     `count-2' refers to a function object which refers to an instance
     of the variable `n'; this is the only reference to that variable,
     so after `(setq count-2 nil)' the garbage collector would be able
     to delete this instance of `n'.  Of course, if a `lexical-let'
     does not actually create any closures, then the lexical variables
     are free as soon as the `lexical-let' returns.

     Many closures are used only during the extent of the bindings they
     refer to; these are known as "downward funargs" in Lisp parlance.
     When a closure is used in this way, regular Emacs Lisp dynamic
     bindings suffice and will be more efficient than `lexical-let'
     closures:

          (defun add-to-list (x list)
            (mapcar (function (lambda (y) (+ x y))) list))
          (add-to-list 7 '(1 2 5))
               => (8 9 12)

     Since this lambda is only used while `x' is still bound, it is not
     necessary to make a true closure out of it.

     You can use `defun' or `flet' inside a `lexical-let' to create a
     named closure.  If several closures are created in the body of a
     single `lexical-let', they all close over the same instance of the
     lexical variable.

     The `lexical-let' form is an extension to Common Lisp.  In true
     Common Lisp, all bindings are lexical unless declared otherwise.

 - Special Form: lexical-let* (bindings...) forms...
     This form is just like `lexical-let', except that the bindings are
     made sequentially in the manner of `let*'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Function Bindings,  Next: Macro Bindings,  Prev: Lexical Bindings,  Up: Variable Bindings

Function Bindings
-----------------

These forms make `let'-like bindings to functions instead of variables.

 - Special Form: flet (bindings...) forms...
     This form establishes `let'-style bindings on the function cells
     of symbols rather than on the value cells.  Each BINDING must be a
     list of the form `(NAME ARGLIST FORMS...)', which defines a
     function exactly as if it were a `defun*' form.  The function NAME
     is defined accordingly for the duration of the body of the `flet';
     then the old function definition, or lack thereof, is restored.

     While `flet' in Common Lisp establishes a lexical binding of NAME,
     Emacs Lisp `flet' makes a dynamic binding.  The result is that
     `flet' affects indirect calls to a function as well as calls
     directly inside the `flet' form itself.

     You can use `flet' to disable or modify the behavior of a function
     in a temporary fashion.  This will even work on Emacs primitives,
     although note that some calls to primitive functions internal to
     Emacs are made without going through the symbol's function cell,
     and so will not be affected by `flet'.  For example,

          (flet ((message (&rest args) (push args saved-msgs)))
            (do-something))

     This code attempts to replace the built-in function `message' with
     a function that simply saves the messages in a list rather than
     displaying them.  The original definition of `message' will be
     restored after `do-something' exits.  This code will work fine on
     messages generated by other Lisp code, but messages generated
     directly inside Emacs will not be caught since they make direct
     C-language calls to the message routines rather than going through
     the Lisp `message' function.

     Functions defined by `flet' may use the full Common Lisp argument
     notation supported by `defun*'; also, the function body is
     enclosed in an implicit block as if by `defun*'.  *Note Program
     Structure::.

 - Special Form: labels (bindings...) forms...
     The `labels' form is a synonym for `flet'.  (In Common Lisp,
     `labels' and `flet' differ in ways that depend on their lexical
     scoping; these distinctions vanish in dynamically scoped Emacs
     Lisp.)


File: cl.info,  Node: Macro Bindings,  Prev: Function Bindings,  Up: Variable Bindings

Macro Bindings
--------------

These forms create local macros and "symbol macros."

 - Special Form: macrolet (bindings...) forms...
     This form is analogous to `flet', but for macros instead of
     functions.  Each BINDING is a list of the same form as the
     arguments to `defmacro*' (i.e., a macro name, argument list, and
     macro-expander forms).  The macro is defined accordingly for use
     within the body of the `macrolet'.

     Because of the nature of macros, `macrolet' is lexically scoped
     even in Emacs Lisp:  The `macrolet' binding will affect only calls
     that appear physically within the body FORMS, possibly after
     expansion of other macros in the body.

 - Special Form: symbol-macrolet (bindings...) forms...
     This form creates "symbol macros", which are macros that look like
     variable references rather than function calls.  Each BINDING is a
     list `(VAR EXPANSION)'; any reference to VAR within the body FORMS
     is replaced by EXPANSION.

          (setq bar '(5 . 9))
          (symbol-macrolet ((foo (car bar)))
            (incf foo))
          bar
               => (6 . 9)

     A `setq' of a symbol macro is treated the same as a `setf'.  I.e.,
     `(setq foo 4)' in the above would be equivalent to `(setf foo 4)',
     which in turn expands to `(setf (car bar) 4)'.

     Likewise, a `let' or `let*' binding a symbol macro is treated like
     a `letf' or `letf*'.  This differs from true Common Lisp, where
     the rules of lexical scoping cause a `let' binding to shadow a
     `symbol-macrolet' binding.  In this package, only `lexical-let'
     and `lexical-let*' will shadow a symbol macro.

     There is no analogue of `defmacro' for symbol macros; all symbol
     macros are local.  A typical use of `symbol-macrolet' is in the
     expansion of another macro:

          (defmacro* my-dolist ((x list) &rest body)
            (let ((var (gensym)))
              (list 'loop 'for var 'on list 'do
                    (list* 'symbol-macrolet (list (list x (list 'car var)))
                           body))))
          
          (setq mylist '(1 2 3 4))
          (my-dolist (x mylist) (incf x))
          mylist
               => (2 3 4 5)

     In this example, the `my-dolist' macro is similar to `dolist'
     (*note Iteration::) except that the variable `x' becomes a true
     reference onto the elements of the list.  The `my-dolist' call
     shown here expands to

          (loop for G1234 on mylist do
                (symbol-macrolet ((x (car G1234)))
                  (incf x)))

     which in turn expands to

          (loop for G1234 on mylist do (incf (car G1234)))

     *Note Loop Facility::, for a description of the `loop' macro.
     This package defines a nonstandard `in-ref' loop clause that works
     much like `my-dolist'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Conditionals,  Next: Blocks and Exits,  Prev: Variable Bindings,  Up: Control Structure

Conditionals
============

These conditional forms augment Emacs Lisp's simple `if', `and', `or',
and `cond' forms.

 - Special Form: when test forms...
     This is a variant of `if' where there are no "else" forms, and
     possibly several "then" forms.  In particular,

          (when TEST A B C)

     is entirely equivalent to

          (if TEST (progn A B C) nil)

 - Special Form: unless test forms...
     This is a variant of `if' where there are no "then" forms, and
     possibly several "else" forms:

          (unless TEST A B C)

     is entirely equivalent to

          (when (not TEST) A B C)

 - Special Form: case keyform clause...
     This macro evaluates KEYFORM, then compares it with the key values
     listed in the various CLAUSEs.  Whichever clause matches the key
     is executed; comparison is done by `eql'.  If no clause matches,
     the `case' form returns `nil'.  The clauses are of the form

          (KEYLIST BODY-FORMS...)

     where KEYLIST is a list of key values.  If there is exactly one
     value, and it is not a cons cell or the symbol `nil' or `t', then
     it can be used by itself as a KEYLIST without being enclosed in a
     list.  All key values in the `case' form must be distinct.  The
     final clauses may use `t' in place of a KEYLIST to indicate a
     default clause that should be taken if none of the other clauses
     match.  (The symbol `otherwise' is also recognized in place of
     `t'.  To make a clause that matches the actual symbol `t', `nil',
     or `otherwise', enclose the symbol in a list.)

     For example, this expression reads a keystroke, then does one of
     four things depending on whether it is an `a', a `b', a <RET> or
     <LFD>, or anything else.

          (case (read-char)
            (?a (do-a-thing))
            (?b (do-b-thing))
            ((?\r ?\n) (do-ret-thing))
            (t (do-other-thing)))

 - Special Form: ecase keyform clause...
     This macro is just like `case', except that if the key does not
     match any of the clauses, an error is signalled rather than simply
     returning `nil'.

 - Special Form: typecase keyform clause...
     This macro is a version of `case' that checks for types rather
     than values.  Each CLAUSE is of the form `(TYPE BODY...)'.  *Note
     Type Predicates::, for a description of type specifiers.  For
     example,

          (typecase x
            (integer (munch-integer x))
            (float (munch-float x))
            (string (munch-integer (string-to-int x)))
            (t (munch-anything x)))

     The type specifier `t' matches any type of object; the word
     `otherwise' is also allowed.  To make one clause match any of
     several types, use an `(or ...)' type specifier.

 - Special Form: etypecase keyform clause...
     This macro is just like `typecase', except that if the key does
     not match any of the clauses, an error is signalled rather than
     simply returning `nil'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Blocks and Exits,  Next: Iteration,  Prev: Conditionals,  Up: Control Structure

Blocks and Exits
================

Common Lisp "blocks" provide a non-local exit mechanism very similar to
`catch' and `throw', but lexically rather than dynamically scoped.
This package actually implements `block' in terms of `catch'; however,
the lexical scoping allows the optimizing byte-compiler to omit the
costly `catch' step if the body of the block does not actually
`return-from' the block.

 - Special Form: block name forms...
     The FORMS are evaluated as if by a `progn'.  However, if any of
     the FORMS execute `(return-from NAME)', they will jump out and
     return directly from the `block' form.  The `block' returns the
     result of the last FORM unless a `return-from' occurs.

     The `block'/`return-from' mechanism is quite similar to the
     `catch'/`throw' mechanism.  The main differences are that block
     NAMEs are unevaluated symbols, rather than forms (such as quoted
     symbols) which evaluate to a tag at run-time; and also that blocks
     are lexically scoped whereas `catch'/`throw' are dynamically
     scoped.  This means that functions called from the body of a
     `catch' can also `throw' to the `catch', but the `return-from'
     referring to a block name must appear physically within the FORMS
     that make up the body of the block.  They may not appear within
     other called functions, although they may appear within macro
     expansions or `lambda's in the body.  Block names and `catch'
     names form independent name-spaces.

     In true Common Lisp, `defun' and `defmacro' surround the function
     or expander bodies with implicit blocks with the same name as the
     function or macro.  This does not occur in Emacs Lisp, but this
     package provides `defun*' and `defmacro*' forms which do create
     the implicit block.

     The Common Lisp looping constructs defined by this package, such
     as `loop' and `dolist', also create implicit blocks just as in
     Common Lisp.

     Because they are implemented in terms of Emacs Lisp `catch' and
     `throw', blocks have the same overhead as actual `catch'
     constructs (roughly two function calls).  However, Zawinski and
     Furuseth's optimizing byte compiler (standard in Emacs 19) will
     optimize away the `catch' if the block does not in fact contain
     any `return' or `return-from' calls that jump to it.  This means
     that `do' loops and `defun*' functions which don't use `return'
     don't pay the overhead to support it.

 - Special Form: return-from name [result]
     This macro returns from the block named NAME, which must be an
     (unevaluated) symbol.  If a RESULT form is specified, it is
     evaluated to produce the result returned from the `block'.
     Otherwise, `nil' is returned.

 - Special Form: return [result]
     This macro is exactly like `(return-from nil RESULT)'.  Common
     Lisp loops like `do' and `dolist' implicitly enclose themselves in
     `nil' blocks.


File: cl.info,  Node: Iteration,  Next: Loop Facility,  Prev: Blocks and Exits,  Up: Control Structure

Iteration
=========

The macros described here provide more sophisticated, high-level
looping constructs to complement Emacs Lisp's basic `while' loop.

 - Special Form: loop forms...
     The "CL" package supports both the simple, old-style meaning of
     `loop' and the extremely powerful and flexible feature known as
     the "Loop Facility" or "Loop Macro".  This more advanced facility
     is discussed in the following section; *note Loop Facility::.  The
     simple form of `loop' is described here.

     If `loop' is followed by zero or more Lisp expressions, then
     `(loop EXPRS...)' simply creates an infinite loop executing the
     expressions over and over.  The loop is enclosed in an implicit
     `nil' block.  Thus,

          (loop (foo)  (if (no-more) (return 72))  (bar))

     is exactly equivalent to

          (block nil (while t (foo)  (if (no-more) (return 72))  (bar)))

     If any of the expressions are plain symbols, the loop is instead
     interpreted as a Loop Macro specification as described later.
     (This is not a restriction in practice, since a plain symbol in
     the above notation would simply access and throw away the value of
     a variable.)

 - Special Form: do (spec...) (end-test [result...]) forms...
     This macro creates a general iterative loop.  Each SPEC is of the
     form

          (VAR [INIT [STEP]])

     The loop works as follows:  First, each VAR is bound to the
     associated INIT value as if by a `let' form.  Then, in each
     iteration of the loop, the END-TEST is evaluated; if true, the
     loop is finished.  Otherwise, the body FORMS are evaluated, then
     each VAR is set to the associated STEP expression (as if by a
     `psetq' form) and the next iteration begins.  Once the END-TEST
     becomes true, the RESULT forms are evaluated (with the VARs still
     bound to their values) to produce the result returned by `do'.

     The entire `do' loop is enclosed in an implicit `nil' block, so
     that you can use `(return)' to break out of the loop at any time.

     If there are no RESULT forms, the loop returns `nil'.  If a given
     VAR has no STEP form, it is bound to its INIT value but not
     otherwise modified during the `do' loop (unless the code
     explicitly modifies it); this case is just a shorthand for putting
     a `(let ((VAR INIT)) ...)' around the loop.  If INIT is also
     omitted it defaults to `nil', and in this case a plain `VAR' can
     be used in place of `(VAR)', again following the analogy with
     `let'.

     This example (from Steele) illustrates a loop which applies the
     function `f' to successive pairs of values from the lists `foo'
     and `bar'; it is equivalent to the call `(mapcar* 'f foo bar)'.
     Note that this loop has no body FORMS at all, performing all its
     work as side effects of the rest of the loop.

          (do ((x foo (cdr x))
               (y bar (cdr y))
               (z nil (cons (f (car x) (car y)) z)))
            ((or (null x) (null y))
             (nreverse z)))

 - Special Form: do* (spec...) (end-test [result...]) forms...
     This is to `do' what `let*' is to `let'.  In particular, the
     initial values are bound as if by `let*' rather than `let', and
     the steps are assigned as if by `setq' rather than `psetq'.

     Here is another way to write the above loop:

          (do* ((xp foo (cdr xp))
                (yp bar (cdr yp))
                (x (car xp) (car xp))
                (y (car yp) (car yp))
                z)
            ((or (null xp) (null yp))
             (nreverse z))
            (push (f x y) z))

 - Special Form: dolist (var list [result]) forms...
     This is a more specialized loop which iterates across the elements
     of a list.  LIST should evaluate to a list; the body FORMS are
     executed with VAR bound to each element of the list in turn.
     Finally, the RESULT form (or `nil') is evaluated with VAR bound to
     `nil' to produce the result returned by the loop.  The loop is
     surrounded by an implicit `nil' block.

 - Special Form: dotimes (var count [result]) forms...
     This is a more specialized loop which iterates a specified number
     of times.  The body is executed with VAR bound to the integers
     from zero (inclusive) to COUNT (exclusive), in turn.  Then the
     `result' form is evaluated with VAR bound to the total number of
     iterations that were done (i.e., `(max 0 COUNT)') to get the
     return value for the loop form.  The loop is surrounded by an
     implicit `nil' block.

 - Special Form: do-symbols (var [obarray [result]]) forms...
     This loop iterates over all interned symbols.  If OBARRAY is
     specified and is not `nil', it loops over all symbols in that
     obarray.  For each symbol, the body FORMS are evaluated with VAR
     bound to that symbol.  The symbols are visited in an unspecified
     order.  Afterward the RESULT form, if any, is evaluated (with VAR
     bound to `nil') to get the return value.  The loop is surrounded
     by an implicit `nil' block.

 - Special Form: do-all-symbols (var [result]) forms...
     This is identical to `do-symbols' except that the OBARRAY argument
     is omitted; it always iterates over the default obarray.

  *Note Mapping over Sequences::, for some more functions for iterating
over vectors or lists.


File: cl.info,  Node: Loop Facility,  Next: Multiple Values,  Prev: Iteration,  Up: Control Structure

Loop Facility
=============

A common complaint with Lisp's traditional looping constructs is that
they are either too simple and limited, such as Common Lisp's `dotimes'
or Emacs Lisp's `while', or too unreadable and obscure, like Common
Lisp's `do' loop.

  To remedy this, recent versions of Common Lisp have added a new
construct called the "Loop Facility" or "`loop' macro," with an
easy-to-use but very powerful and expressive syntax.

* Menu:

* Loop Basics::           `loop' macro, basic clause structure
* Loop Examples::         Working examples of `loop' macro
* For Clauses::           Clauses introduced by `for' or `as'
* Iteration Clauses::     `repeat', `while', `thereis', etc.
* Accumulation Clauses::  `collect', `sum', `maximize', etc.
* Other Clauses::         `with', `if', `initially', `finally'


File: cl.info,  Node: Loop Basics,  Next: Loop Examples,  Prev: Loop Facility,  Up: Loop Facility

Loop Basics
-----------

The `loop' macro essentially creates a mini-language within Lisp that
is specially tailored for describing loops.  While this language is a
little strange-looking by the standards of regular Lisp, it turns out
to be very easy to learn and well-suited to its purpose.

  Since `loop' is a macro, all parsing of the loop language takes place
at byte-compile time; compiled `loop's are just as efficient as the
equivalent `while' loops written longhand.

 - Special Form: loop clauses...
     A loop construct consists of a series of CLAUSEs, each introduced
     by a symbol like `for' or `do'.  Clauses are simply strung
     together in the argument list of `loop', with minimal extra
     parentheses.  The various types of clauses specify
     initializations, such as the binding of temporary variables,
     actions to be taken in the loop, stepping actions, and final
     cleanup.

     Common Lisp specifies a certain general order of clauses in a loop:

          (loop NAME-CLAUSE
                VAR-CLAUSES...
                ACTION-CLAUSES...)

     The NAME-CLAUSE optionally gives a name to the implicit block that
     surrounds the loop.  By default, the implicit block is named
     `nil'.  The VAR-CLAUSES specify what variables should be bound
     during the loop, and how they should be modified or iterated
     throughout the course of the loop.  The ACTION-CLAUSES are things
     to be done during the loop, such as computing, collecting, and
     returning values.

     The Emacs version of the `loop' macro is less restrictive about
     the order of clauses, but things will behave most predictably if
     you put the variable-binding clauses `with', `for', and `repeat'
     before the action clauses.  As in Common Lisp, `initially' and
     `finally' clauses can go anywhere.

     Loops generally return `nil' by default, but you can cause them to
     return a value by using an accumulation clause like `collect', an
     end-test clause like `always', or an explicit `return' clause to
     jump out of the implicit block.  (Because the loop body is
     enclosed in an implicit block, you can also use regular Lisp
     `return' or `return-from' to break out of the loop.)

  The following sections give some examples of the Loop Macro in
action, and describe the particular loop clauses in great detail.
Consult the second edition of Steele's "Common Lisp, the Language", for
additional discussion and examples of the `loop' macro.


File: cl.info,  Node: Loop Examples,  Next: For Clauses,  Prev: Loop Basics,  Up: Loop Facility

Loop Examples
-------------

Before listing the full set of clauses that are allowed, let's look at
a few example loops just to get a feel for the `loop' language.

     (loop for buf in (buffer-list)
           collect (buffer-file-name buf))

This loop iterates over all Emacs buffers, using the list returned by
`buffer-list'.  For each buffer `buf', it calls `buffer-file-name' and
collects the results into a list, which is then returned from the
`loop' construct.  The result is a list of the file names of all the
buffers in Emacs' memory.  The words `for', `in', and `collect' are
reserved words in the `loop' language.

     (loop repeat 20 do (insert "Yowsa\n"))

This loop inserts the phrase "Yowsa" twenty times in the current buffer.

     (loop until (eobp) do (munch-line) (forward-line 1))

This loop calls `munch-line' on every line until the end of the buffer.
If point is already at the end of the buffer, the loop exits
immediately.

     (loop do (munch-line) until (eobp) do (forward-line 1))

This loop is similar to the above one, except that `munch-line' is
always called at least once.

     (loop for x from 1 to 100
           for y = (* x x)
           until (>= y 729)
           finally return (list x (= y 729)))

This more complicated loop searches for a number `x' whose square is
729.  For safety's sake it only examines `x' values up to 100; dropping
the phrase `to 100' would cause the loop to count upwards with no
limit.  The second `for' clause defines `y' to be the square of `x'
within the loop; the expression after the `=' sign is reevaluated each
time through the loop.  The `until' clause gives a condition for
terminating the loop, and the `finally' clause says what to do when the
loop finishes.  (This particular example was written less concisely
than it could have been, just for the sake of illustration.)

  Note that even though this loop contains three clauses (two `for's
and an `until') that would have been enough to define loops all by
themselves, it still creates a single loop rather than some sort of
triple-nested loop.  You must explicitly nest your `loop' constructs if
you want nested loops.


File: cl.info,  Node: For Clauses,  Next: Iteration Clauses,  Prev: Loop Examples,  Up: Loop Facility

For Clauses
-----------

Most loops are governed by one or more `for' clauses.  A `for' clause
simultaneously describes variables to be bound, how those variables are
to be stepped during the loop, and usually an end condition based on
those variables.

  The word `as' is a synonym for the word `for'.  This word is followed
by a variable name, then a word like `from' or `across' that describes
the kind of iteration desired.  In Common Lisp, the phrase `being the'
sometimes precedes the type of iteration; in this package both `being'
and `the' are optional.  The word `each' is a synonym for `the', and
the word that follows it may be singular or plural:  `for x being the
elements of y' or `for x being each element of y'.  Which form you use
is purely a matter of style.

  The variable is bound around the loop as if by `let':

     (setq i 'happy)
     (loop for i from 1 to 10 do (do-something-with i))
     i
          => happy

`for VAR from EXPR1 to EXPR2 by EXPR3'
     This type of `for' clause creates a counting loop.  Each of the
     three sub-terms is optional, though there must be at least one
     term so that the clause is marked as a counting clause.

     The three expressions are the starting value, the ending value, and
     the step value, respectively, of the variable.  The loop counts
     upwards by default (EXPR3 must be positive), from EXPR1 to EXPR2
     inclusively.  If you omit the `from' term, the loop counts from
     zero; if you omit the `to' term, the loop counts forever without
     stopping (unless stopped by some other loop clause, of course); if
     you omit the `by' term, the loop counts in steps of one.

     You can replace the word `from' with `upfrom' or `downfrom' to
     indicate the direction of the loop.  Likewise, you can replace
     `to' with `upto' or `downto'.  For example, `for x from 5 downto
     1' executes five times with `x' taking on the integers from 5 down
     to 1 in turn.  Also, you can replace `to' with `below' or `above',
     which are like `upto' and `downto' respectively except that they
     are exclusive rather than inclusive limits:

          (loop for x to 10 collect x)
               => (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)
          (loop for x below 10 collect x)
               => (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9)

     The `by' value is always positive, even for downward-counting
     loops.  Some sort of `from' value is required for downward loops;
     `for x downto 5' is not a legal loop clause all by itself.

`for VAR in LIST by FUNCTION'
     This clause iterates VAR over all the elements of LIST, in turn.
     If you specify the `by' term, then FUNCTION is used to traverse
     the list instead of `cdr'; it must be a function taking one
     argument.  For example:

          (loop for x in '(1 2 3 4 5 6) collect (* x x))
               => (1 4 9 16 25 36)
          (loop for x in '(1 2 3 4 5 6) by 'cddr collect (* x x))
               => (1 9 25)

`for VAR on LIST by FUNCTION'
     This clause iterates VAR over all the cons cells of LIST.

          (loop for x on '(1 2 3 4) collect x)
               => ((1 2 3 4) (2 3 4) (3 4) (4))

     With `by', there is no real reason that the `on' expression must
     be a list.  For example:

          (loop for x on first-animal by 'next-animal collect x)

     where `(next-animal x)' takes an "animal" X and returns the next
     in the (assumed) sequence of animals, or `nil' if X was the last
     animal in the sequence.

`for VAR in-ref LIST by FUNCTION'
     This is like a regular `in' clause, but VAR becomes a `setf'-able
     "reference" onto the elements of the list rather than just a
     temporary variable.  For example,

          (loop for x in-ref my-list do (incf x))

     increments every element of `my-list' in place.  This clause is an
     extension to standard Common Lisp.

`for VAR across ARRAY'
     This clause iterates VAR over all the elements of ARRAY, which may
     be a vector or a string.

          (loop for x across "aeiou"
                do (use-vowel (char-to-string x)))

`for VAR across-ref ARRAY'
     This clause iterates over an array, with VAR a `setf'-able
     reference onto the elements; see `in-ref' above.

`for VAR being the elements of SEQUENCE'
     This clause iterates over the elements of SEQUENCE, which may be a
     list, vector, or string.  Since the type must be determined at
     run-time, this is somewhat less efficient than `in' or `across'.
     The clause may be followed by the additional term `using (index
     VAR2)' to cause VAR2 to be bound to the successive indices
     (starting at 0) of the elements.

     This clause type is taken from older versions of the `loop' macro,
     and is not present in modern Common Lisp.  The `using (sequence
     ...)' term of the older macros is not supported.

`for VAR being the elements of-ref SEQUENCE'
     This clause iterates over a sequence, with VAR a `setf'-able
     reference onto the elements; see `in-ref' above.

`for VAR being the symbols [of OBARRAY]'
     This clause iterates over symbols, either over all interned symbols
     or over all symbols in OBARRAY.  The loop is executed with VAR
     bound to each symbol in turn.  The symbols are visited in an
     unspecified order.

     As an example,

          (loop for sym being the symbols
                when (fboundp sym)
                when (string-match "^map" (symbol-name sym))
                collect sym)

     returns a list of all the functions whose names begin with `map'.

     The Common Lisp words `external-symbols' and `present-symbols' are
     also recognized but are equivalent to `symbols' in Emacs Lisp.

     Due to a minor implementation restriction, it will not work to have
     more than one `for' clause iterating over symbols, hash tables,
     keymaps, overlays, or intervals in a given `loop'.  Fortunately,
     it would rarely if ever be useful to do so.  It _is_ legal to mix
     one of these types of clauses with other clauses like `for ... to'
     or `while'.

`for VAR being the hash-keys of HASH-TABLE'
     This clause iterates over the entries in HASH-TABLE.  For each
     hash table entry, VAR is bound to the entry's key.  If you write
     `the hash-values' instead, VAR is bound to the values of the
     entries.  The clause may be followed by the additional term `using
     (hash-values VAR2)' (where `hash-values' is the opposite word of
     the word following `the') to cause VAR and VAR2 to be bound to the
     two parts of each hash table entry.

`for VAR being the key-codes of KEYMAP'
     This clause iterates over the entries in KEYMAP.  In GNU Emacs 18
     and 19, keymaps are either alists or vectors, and key-codes are
     integers or symbols.  In XEmacs, keymaps are a special new data
     type, and key-codes are symbols or lists of symbols.  The
     iteration does not enter nested keymaps or inherited (parent)
     keymaps.  You can use `the key-bindings' to access the commands
     bound to the keys rather than the key codes, and you can add a
     `using' clause to access both the codes and the bindings together.

`for VAR being the key-seqs of KEYMAP'
     This clause iterates over all key sequences defined by KEYMAP and
     its nested keymaps, where VAR takes on values which are strings in
     Emacs 18 or vectors in Emacs 19.  The strings or vectors are
     reused for each iteration, so you must copy them if you wish to
     keep them permanently.  You can add a `using (key-bindings ...)'
     clause to get the command bindings as well.

`for VAR being the overlays [of BUFFER] ...'
     This clause iterates over the Emacs 19 "overlays" or XEmacs
     "extents" of a buffer (the clause `extents' is synonymous with
     `overlays').  Under Emacs 18, this clause iterates zero times.  If
     the `of' term is omitted, the current buffer is used.  This clause
     also accepts optional `from POS' and `to POS' terms, limiting the
     clause to overlays which overlap the specified region.

`for VAR being the intervals [of BUFFER] ...'
     This clause iterates over all intervals of a buffer with constant
     text properties.  The variable VAR will be bound to conses of
     start and end positions, where one start position is always equal
     to the previous end position.  The clause allows `of', `from',
     `to', and `property' terms, where the latter term restricts the
     search to just the specified property.  The `of' term may specify
     either a buffer or a string.  This clause is useful only in GNU
     Emacs 19; in other versions, all buffers and strings consist of a
     single interval.

`for VAR being the frames'
     This clause iterates over all frames, i.e., X window system windows
     open on Emacs files.  This clause works only under Emacs 19.  The
     clause `screens' is a synonym for `frames'.  The frames are
     visited in `next-frame' order starting from `selected-frame'.

`for VAR being the windows [of FRAME]'
     This clause iterates over the windows (in the Emacs sense) of the
     current frame, or of the specified FRAME.  (In Emacs 18 there is
     only ever one frame, and the `of' term is not allowed there.)

`for VAR being the buffers'
     This clause iterates over all buffers in Emacs.  It is equivalent
     to `for VAR in (buffer-list)'.

`for VAR = EXPR1 then EXPR2'
     This clause does a general iteration.  The first time through the
     loop, VAR will be bound to EXPR1.  On the second and successive
     iterations it will be set by evaluating EXPR2 (which may refer to
     the old value of VAR).  For example, these two loops are
     effectively the same:

          (loop for x on my-list by 'cddr do ...)
          (loop for x = my-list then (cddr x) while x do ...)

     Note that this type of `for' clause does not imply any sort of
     terminating condition; the above example combines it with a
     `while' clause to tell when to end the loop.

     If you omit the `then' term, EXPR1 is used both for the initial
     setting and for successive settings:

          (loop for x = (random) when (> x 0) return x)

     This loop keeps taking random numbers from the `(random)' function
     until it gets a positive one, which it then returns.

  If you include several `for' clauses in a row, they are treated
sequentially (as if by `let*' and `setq').  You can instead use the
word `and' to link the clauses, in which case they are processed in
parallel (as if by `let' and `psetq').

     (loop for x below 5 for y = nil then x collect (list x y))
          => ((0 nil) (1 1) (2 2) (3 3) (4 4))
     (loop for x below 5 and y = nil then x collect (list x y))
          => ((0 nil) (1 0) (2 1) (3 2) (4 3))

In the first loop, `y' is set based on the value of `x' that was just
set by the previous clause; in the second loop, `x' and `y' are set
simultaneously so `y' is set based on the value of `x' left over from
the previous time through the loop.

  Another feature of the `loop' macro is "destructuring", similar in
concept to the destructuring provided by `defmacro'.  The VAR part of
any `for' clause can be given as a list of variables instead of a
single variable.  The values produced during loop execution must be
lists; the values in the lists are stored in the corresponding
variables.

     (loop for (x y) in '((2 3) (4 5) (6 7)) collect (+ x y))
          => (5 9 13)

  In loop destructuring, if there are more values than variables the
trailing values are ignored, and if there are more variables than
values the trailing variables get the value `nil'.  If `nil' is used as
a variable name, the corresponding values are ignored.  Destructuring
may be nested, and dotted lists of variables like `(x . y)' are allowed.


File: cl.info,  Node: Iteration Clauses,  Next: Accumulation Clauses,  Prev: For Clauses,  Up: Loop Facility

Iteration Clauses
-----------------

Aside from `for' clauses, there are several other loop clauses that
control the way the loop operates.  They might be used by themselves,
or in conjunction with one or more `for' clauses.

`repeat INTEGER'
     This clause simply counts up to the specified number using an
     internal temporary variable.  The loops

          (loop repeat n do ...)
          (loop for temp to n do ...)

     are identical except that the second one forces you to choose a
     name for a variable you aren't actually going to use.

`while CONDITION'
     This clause stops the loop when the specified condition (any Lisp
     expression) becomes `nil'.  For example, the following two loops
     are equivalent, except for the implicit `nil' block that surrounds
     the second one:

          (while COND FORMS...)
          (loop while COND do FORMS...)

`until CONDITION'
     This clause stops the loop when the specified condition is true,
     i.e., non-`nil'.

`always CONDITION'
     This clause stops the loop when the specified condition is `nil'.
     Unlike `while', it stops the loop using `return nil' so that the
     `finally' clauses are not executed.  If all the conditions were
     non-`nil', the loop returns `t':

          (if (loop for size in size-list always (> size 10))
              (some-big-sizes)
            (no-big-sizes))

`never CONDITION'
     This clause is like `always', except that the loop returns `t' if
     any conditions were false, or `nil' otherwise.

`thereis CONDITION'
     This clause stops the loop when the specified form is non-`nil';
     in this case, it returns that non-`nil' value.  If all the values
     were `nil', the loop returns `nil'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Accumulation Clauses,  Next: Other Clauses,  Prev: Iteration Clauses,  Up: Loop Facility

Accumulation Clauses
--------------------

These clauses cause the loop to accumulate information about the
specified Lisp FORM.  The accumulated result is returned from the loop
unless overridden, say, by a `return' clause.

`collect FORM'
     This clause collects the values of FORM into a list.  Several
     examples of `collect' appear elsewhere in this manual.

     The word `collecting' is a synonym for `collect', and likewise for
     the other accumulation clauses.

`append FORM'
     This clause collects lists of values into a result list using
     `append'.

`nconc FORM'
     This clause collects lists of values into a result list by
     destructively modifying the lists rather than copying them.

`concat FORM'
     This clause concatenates the values of the specified FORM into a
     string.  (It and the following clause are extensions to standard
     Common Lisp.)

`vconcat FORM'
     This clause concatenates the values of the specified FORM into a
     vector.

`count FORM'
     This clause counts the number of times the specified FORM
     evaluates to a non-`nil' value.

`sum FORM'
     This clause accumulates the sum of the values of the specified
     FORM, which must evaluate to a number.

`maximize FORM'
     This clause accumulates the maximum value of the specified FORM,
     which must evaluate to a number.  The return value is undefined if
     `maximize' is executed zero times.

`minimize FORM'
     This clause accumulates the minimum value of the specified FORM.

  Accumulation clauses can be followed by `into VAR' to cause the data
to be collected into variable VAR (which is automatically `let'-bound
during the loop) rather than an unnamed temporary variable.  Also,
`into' accumulations do not automatically imply a return value.  The
loop must use some explicit mechanism, such as `finally return', to
return the accumulated result.

  It is legal for several accumulation clauses of the same type to
accumulate into the same place.  From Steele:

     (loop for name in '(fred sue alice joe june)
           for kids in '((bob ken) () () (kris sunshine) ())
           collect name
           append kids)
          => (fred bob ken sue alice joe kris sunshine june)


File: cl.info,  Node: Other Clauses,  Prev: Accumulation Clauses,  Up: Loop Facility

Other Clauses
-------------

This section describes the remaining loop clauses.

`with VAR = VALUE'
     This clause binds a variable to a value around the loop, but
     otherwise leaves the variable alone during the loop.  The following
     loops are basically equivalent:

          (loop with x = 17 do ...)
          (let ((x 17)) (loop do ...))
          (loop for x = 17 then x do ...)

     Naturally, the variable VAR might be used for some purpose in the
     rest of the loop.  For example:

          (loop for x in my-list  with res = nil  do (push x res)
                finally return res)

     This loop inserts the elements of `my-list' at the front of a new
     list being accumulated in `res', then returns the list `res' at
     the end of the loop.  The effect is similar to that of a `collect'
     clause, but the list gets reversed by virtue of the fact that
     elements are being pushed onto the front of `res' rather than the
     end.

     If you omit the `=' term, the variable is initialized to `nil'.
     (Thus the `= nil' in the above example is unnecessary.)

     Bindings made by `with' are sequential by default, as if by
     `let*'.  Just like `for' clauses, `with' clauses can be linked
     with `and' to cause the bindings to be made by `let' instead.

`if CONDITION CLAUSE'
     This clause executes the following loop clause only if the
     specified condition is true.  The following CLAUSE should be an
     accumulation, `do', `return', `if', or `unless' clause.  Several
     clauses may be linked by separating them with `and'.  These
     clauses may be followed by `else' and a clause or clauses to
     execute if the condition was false.  The whole construct may
     optionally be followed by the word `end' (which may be used to
     disambiguate an `else' or `and' in a nested `if').

     The actual non-`nil' value of the condition form is available by
     the name `it' in the "then" part.  For example:

          (setq funny-numbers '(6 13 -1))
               => (6 13 -1)
          (loop for x below 10
                if (oddp x)
                  collect x into odds
                  and if (memq x funny-numbers) return (cdr it) end
                else
                  collect x into evens
                finally return (vector odds evens))
               => [(1 3 5 7 9) (0 2 4 6 8)]
          (setq funny-numbers '(6 7 13 -1))
               => (6 7 13 -1)
          (loop <same thing again>)
               => (13 -1)

     Note the use of `and' to put two clauses into the "then" part, one
     of which is itself an `if' clause.  Note also that `end', while
     normally optional, was necessary here to make it clear that the
     `else' refers to the outermost `if' clause.  In the first case,
     the loop returns a vector of lists of the odd and even values of
     X.  In the second case, the odd number 7 is one of the
     `funny-numbers' so the loop returns early; the actual returned
     value is based on the result of the `memq' call.

`when CONDITION CLAUSE'
     This clause is just a synonym for `if'.

`unless CONDITION CLAUSE'
     The `unless' clause is just like `if' except that the sense of the
     condition is reversed.

`named NAME'
     This clause gives a name other than `nil' to the implicit block
     surrounding the loop.  The NAME is the symbol to be used as the
     block name.

`initially [do] FORMS...'
     This keyword introduces one or more Lisp forms which will be
     executed before the loop itself begins (but after any variables
     requested by `for' or `with' have been bound to their initial
     values).  `initially' clauses can appear anywhere; if there are
     several, they are executed in the order they appear in the loop.
     The keyword `do' is optional.

`finally [do] FORMS...'
     This introduces Lisp forms which will be executed after the loop
     finishes (say, on request of a `for' or `while').  `initially' and
     `finally' clauses may appear anywhere in the loop construct, but
     they are executed (in the specified order) at the beginning or
     end, respectively, of the loop.

`finally return FORM'
     This says that FORM should be executed after the loop is done to
     obtain a return value.  (Without this, or some other clause like
     `collect' or `return', the loop will simply return `nil'.)
     Variables bound by `for', `with', or `into' will still contain
     their final values when FORM is executed.

`do FORMS...'
     The word `do' may be followed by any number of Lisp expressions
     which are executed as an implicit `progn' in the body of the loop.
     Many of the examples in this section illustrate the use of `do'.

`return FORM'
     This clause causes the loop to return immediately.  The following
     Lisp form is evaluated to give the return value of the `loop'
     form.  The `finally' clauses, if any, are not executed.  Of
     course, `return' is generally used inside an `if' or `unless', as
     its use in a top-level loop clause would mean the loop would never
     get to "loop" more than once.

     The clause `return FORM' is equivalent to `do (return FORM)' (or
     `return-from' if the loop was named).  The `return' clause is
     implemented a bit more efficiently, though.

  While there is no high-level way to add user extensions to `loop'
(comparable to `defsetf' for `setf', say), this package does offer two
properties called `cl-loop-handler' and `cl-loop-for-handler' which are
functions to be called when a given symbol is encountered as a
top-level loop clause or `for' clause, respectively.  Consult the
source code in file `cl-macs.el' for details.

  This package's `loop' macro is compatible with that of Common Lisp,
except that a few features are not implemented:  `loop-finish' and
data-type specifiers.  Naturally, the `for' clauses which iterate over
keymaps, overlays, intervals, frames, windows, and buffers are
Emacs-specific extensions.


File: cl.info,  Node: Multiple Values,  Prev: Loop Facility,  Up: Control Structure

Multiple Values
===============

Common Lisp functions can return zero or more results.  Emacs Lisp
functions, by contrast, always return exactly one result.  This package
makes no attempt to emulate Common Lisp multiple return values; Emacs
versions of Common Lisp functions that return more than one value
either return just the first value (as in `compiler-macroexpand') or
return a list of values (as in `get-setf-method').  This package _does_
define placeholders for the Common Lisp functions that work with
multiple values, but in Emacs Lisp these functions simply operate on
lists instead.  The `values' form, for example, is a synonym for `list'
in Emacs.

 - Special Form: multiple-value-bind (var...) values-form forms...
     This form evaluates VALUES-FORM, which must return a list of
     values.  It then binds the VARs to these respective values, as if
     by `let', and then executes the body FORMS.  If there are more
     VARs than values, the extra VARs are bound to `nil'.  If there are
     fewer VARs than values, the excess values are ignored.

 - Special Form: multiple-value-setq (var...) form
     This form evaluates FORM, which must return a list of values.  It
     then sets the VARs to these respective values, as if by `setq'.
     Extra VARs or values are treated the same as in
     `multiple-value-bind'.

  The older Quiroz package attempted a more faithful (but still
imperfect) emulation of Common Lisp multiple values.  The old method
"usually" simulated true multiple values quite well, but under certain
circumstances would leave spurious return values in memory where a
later, unrelated `multiple-value-bind' form would see them.

  Since a perfect emulation is not feasible in Emacs Lisp, this package
opts to keep it as simple and predictable as possible.


File: cl.info,  Node: Macros,  Next: Declarations,  Prev: Control Structure,  Up: Top

Macros
******

This package implements the various Common Lisp features of `defmacro',
such as destructuring, `&environment', and `&body'.  Top-level `&whole'
is not implemented for `defmacro' due to technical difficulties.  *Note
Argument Lists::.

  Destructuring is made available to the user by way of the following
macro:

 - Special Form: destructuring-bind arglist expr forms...
     This macro expands to code which executes FORMS, with the
     variables in ARGLIST bound to the list of values returned by EXPR.
     The ARGLIST can include all the features allowed for `defmacro'
     argument lists, including destructuring.  (The `&environment'
     keyword is not allowed.)  The macro expansion will signal an error
     if EXPR returns a list of the wrong number of arguments or with
     incorrect keyword arguments.

  This package also includes the Common Lisp `define-compiler-macro'
facility, which allows you to define compile-time expansions and
optimizations for your functions.

 - Special Form: define-compiler-macro name arglist forms...
     This form is similar to `defmacro', except that it only expands
     calls to NAME at compile-time; calls processed by the Lisp
     interpreter are not expanded, nor are they expanded by the
     `macroexpand' function.

     The argument list may begin with a `&whole' keyword and a
     variable.  This variable is bound to the macro-call form itself,
     i.e., to a list of the form `(NAME ARGS...)'.  If the macro
     expander returns this form unchanged, then the compiler treats it
     as a normal function call.  This allows compiler macros to work as
     optimizers for special cases of a function, leaving complicated
     cases alone.

     For example, here is a simplified version of a definition that
     appears as a standard part of this package:

          (define-compiler-macro member* (&whole form a list &rest keys)
            (if (and (null keys)
                     (eq (car-safe a) 'quote)
                     (not (floatp-safe (cadr a))))
                (list 'memq a list)
              form))

     This definition causes `(member* A LIST)' to change to a call to
     the faster `memq' in the common case where A is a
     non-floating-point constant; if A is anything else, or if there
     are any keyword arguments in the call, then the original `member*'
     call is left intact.  (The actual compiler macro for `member*'
     optimizes a number of other cases, including common `:test'
     predicates.)

 - Function: compiler-macroexpand form
     This function is analogous to `macroexpand', except that it
     expands compiler macros rather than regular macros.  It returns
     FORM unchanged if it is not a call to a function for which a
     compiler macro has been defined, or if that compiler macro decided
     to punt by returning its `&whole' argument.  Like `macroexpand',
     it expands repeatedly until it reaches a form for which no further
     expansion is possible.

  *Note Macro Bindings::, for descriptions of the `macrolet' and
`symbol-macrolet' forms for making "local" macro definitions.


File: cl.info,  Node: Declarations,  Next: Symbols,  Prev: Macros,  Up: Top

Declarations
************

Common Lisp includes a complex and powerful "declaration" mechanism
that allows you to give the compiler special hints about the types of
data that will be stored in particular variables, and about the ways
those variables and functions will be used.  This package defines
versions of all the Common Lisp declaration forms: `declare',
`locally', `proclaim', `declaim', and `the'.

  Most of the Common Lisp declarations are not currently useful in
Emacs Lisp, as the byte-code system provides little opportunity to
benefit from type information, and `special' declarations are redundant
in a fully dynamically-scoped Lisp.  A few declarations are meaningful
when the optimizing Emacs 19 byte compiler is being used, however.
Under the earlier non-optimizing compiler, these declarations will
effectively be ignored.

 - Function: proclaim decl-spec
     This function records a "global" declaration specified by
     DECL-SPEC.  Since `proclaim' is a function, DECL-SPEC is evaluated
     and thus should normally be quoted.

 - Special Form: declaim decl-specs...
     This macro is like `proclaim', except that it takes any number of
     DECL-SPEC arguments, and the arguments are unevaluated and
     unquoted.  The `declaim' macro also puts an `(eval-when (compile
     load eval) ...)' around the declarations so that they will be
     registered at compile-time as well as at run-time.  (This is vital,
     since normally the declarations are meant to influence the way the
     compiler treats the rest of the file that contains the `declaim'
     form.)

 - Special Form: declare decl-specs...
     This macro is used to make declarations within functions and other
     code.  Common Lisp allows declarations in various locations,
     generally at the beginning of any of the many "implicit `progn's"
     throughout Lisp syntax, such as function bodies, `let' bodies,
     etc.  Currently the only declaration understood by `declare' is
     `special'.

 - Special Form: locally declarations... forms...
     In this package, `locally' is no different from `progn'.

 - Special Form: the type form
     Type information provided by `the' is ignored in this package; in
     other words, `(the TYPE FORM)' is equivalent to FORM.  Future
     versions of the optimizing byte-compiler may make use of this
     information.

     For example, `mapcar' can map over both lists and arrays.  It is
     hard for the compiler to expand `mapcar' into an in-line loop
     unless it knows whether the sequence will be a list or an array
     ahead of time.  With `(mapcar 'car (the vector foo))', a future
     compiler would have enough information to expand the loop in-line.
     For now, Emacs Lisp will treat the above code as exactly equivalent
     to `(mapcar 'car foo)'.

  Each DECL-SPEC in a `proclaim', `declaim', or `declare' should be a
list beginning with a symbol that says what kind of declaration it is.
This package currently understands `special', `inline', `notinline',
`optimize', and `warn' declarations.  (The `warn' declaration is an
extension of standard Common Lisp.)  Other Common Lisp declarations,
such as `type' and `ftype', are silently ignored.

`special'
     Since all variables in Emacs Lisp are "special" (in the Common
     Lisp sense), `special' declarations are only advisory.  They
     simply tell the optimizing byte compiler that the specified
     variables are intentionally being referred to without being bound
     in the body of the function.  The compiler normally emits warnings
     for such references, since they could be typographical errors for
     references to local variables.

     The declaration `(declare (special VAR1 VAR2))' is equivalent to
     `(defvar VAR1) (defvar VAR2)' in the optimizing compiler, or to
     nothing at all in older compilers (which do not warn for non-local
     references).

     In top-level contexts, it is generally better to write `(defvar
     VAR)' than `(declaim (special VAR))', since `defvar' makes your
     intentions clearer.  But the older byte compilers can not handle
     `defvar's appearing inside of functions, while `(declare (special
     VAR))' takes care to work correctly with all compilers.

`inline'
     The `inline' DECL-SPEC lists one or more functions whose bodies
     should be expanded "in-line" into calling functions whenever the
     compiler is able to arrange for it.  For example, the Common Lisp
     function `cadr' is declared `inline' by this package so that the
     form `(cadr X)' will expand directly into `(car (cdr X))' when it
     is called in user functions, for a savings of one (relatively
     expensive) function call.

     The following declarations are all equivalent.  Note that the
     `defsubst' form is a convenient way to define a function and
     declare it inline all at once, but it is available only in Emacs
     19.

          (declaim (inline foo bar))
          (eval-when (compile load eval) (proclaim '(inline foo bar)))
          (proclaim-inline foo bar)   ; XEmacs only
          (defsubst foo (...) ...)    ; instead of defun; Emacs 19 only

     *Please note:*  This declaration remains in effect after the
     containing source file is done.  It is correct to use it to
     request that a function you have defined should be inlined, but it
     is impolite to use it to request inlining of an external function.

     In Common Lisp, it is possible to use `(declare (inline ...))'
     before a particular call to a function to cause just that call to
     be inlined; the current byte compilers provide no way to implement
     this, so `(declare (inline ...))' is currently ignored by this
     package.

`notinline'
     The `notinline' declaration lists functions which should not be
     inlined after all; it cancels a previous `inline' declaration.

`optimize'
     This declaration controls how much optimization is performed by
     the compiler.  Naturally, it is ignored by the earlier
     non-optimizing compilers.

     The word `optimize' is followed by any number of lists like
     `(speed 3)' or `(safety 2)'.  Common Lisp defines several
     optimization "qualities"; this package ignores all but `speed' and
     `safety'.  The value of a quality should be an integer from 0 to
     3, with 0 meaning "unimportant" and 3 meaning "very important."
     The default level for both qualities is 1.

     In this package, with the Emacs 19 optimizing compiler, the
     `speed' quality is tied to the `byte-compile-optimize' flag, which
     is set to `nil' for `(speed 0)' and to `t' for higher settings;
     and the `safety' quality is tied to the
     `byte-compile-delete-errors' flag, which is set to `t' for
     `(safety 3)' and to `nil' for all lower settings.  (The latter
     flag controls whether the compiler is allowed to optimize out code
     whose only side-effect could be to signal an error, e.g.,
     rewriting `(progn foo bar)' to `bar' when it is not known whether
     `foo' will be bound at run-time.)

     Note that even compiling with `(safety 0)', the Emacs byte-code
     system provides sufficient checking to prevent real harm from
     being done.  For example, barring serious bugs in Emacs itself,
     Emacs will not crash with a segmentation fault just because of an
     error in a fully-optimized Lisp program.

     The `optimize' declaration is normally used in a top-level
     `proclaim' or `declaim' in a file; Common Lisp allows it to be
     used with `declare' to set the level of optimization locally for a
     given form, but this will not work correctly with the current
     version of the optimizing compiler.  (The `declare' will set the
     new optimization level, but that level will not automatically be
     unset after the enclosing form is done.)

`warn'
     This declaration controls what sorts of warnings are generated by
     the byte compiler.  Again, only the optimizing compiler generates
     warnings.  The word `warn' is followed by any number of "warning
     qualities," similar in form to optimization qualities.  The
     currently supported warning types are `redefine', `callargs',
     `unresolved', and `free-vars'; in the current system, a value of 0
     will disable these warnings and any higher value will enable them.
     See the documentation for the optimizing byte compiler for details.


File: cl.info,  Node: Symbols,  Next: Numbers,  Prev: Declarations,  Up: Top

Symbols
*******

This package defines several symbol-related features that were missing
from Emacs Lisp.

* Menu:

* Property Lists::       `getf', `remf'
* Creating Symbols::     `gensym', `gentemp'


File: cl.info,  Node: Property Lists,  Next: Creating Symbols,  Prev: Symbols,  Up: Symbols

Property Lists
==============

These functions augment the standard Emacs Lisp functions `get' and
`put' for operating on properties attached to objects.  There are also
functions for working with property lists as first-class data
structures not attached to particular objects.

 - Function: getf place property &optional default
     This function scans the list PLACE as if it were a property list,
     i.e., a list of alternating property names and values.  If an
     even-numbered element of PLACE is found which is `eq' to PROPERTY,
     the following odd-numbered element is returned.  Otherwise,
     DEFAULT is returned (or `nil' if no default is given).

     In particular,

          (get sym prop)  ==  (getf (symbol-plist sym) prop)

     It is legal to use `getf' as a `setf' place, in which case its
     PLACE argument must itself be a legal `setf' place.  The DEFAULT
     argument, if any, is ignored in this context.  The effect is to
     change (via `setcar') the value cell in the list that corresponds
     to PROPERTY, or to cons a new property-value pair onto the list if
     the property is not yet present.

          (put sym prop val)  ==  (setf (getf (symbol-plist sym) prop) val)

     The `get' function is also `setf'-able.  The fact that `default'
     is ignored can sometimes be useful:

          (incf (get 'foo 'usage-count 0))

     Here, symbol `foo''s `usage-count' property is incremented if it
     exists, or set to 1 (an incremented 0) otherwise.

     When not used as a `setf' form, `getf' is just a regular function
     and its PLACE argument can actually be any Lisp expression.

 - Special Form: remf place property
     This macro removes the property-value pair for PROPERTY from the
     property list stored at PLACE, which is any `setf'-able place
     expression.  It returns true if the property was found.  Note that
     if PROPERTY happens to be first on the list, this will effectively
     do a `(setf PLACE (cddr PLACE))', whereas if it occurs later, this
     simply uses `setcdr' to splice out the property and value cells.


File: cl.info,  Node: Creating Symbols,  Prev: Property Lists,  Up: Symbols

Creating Symbols
================

These functions create unique symbols, typically for use as temporary
variables.

 - Function: gensym &optional x
     This function creates a new, uninterned symbol (using
     `make-symbol') with a unique name.  (The name of an uninterned
     symbol is relevant only if the symbol is printed.)  By default,
     the name is generated from an increasing sequence of numbers,
     `G1000', `G1001', `G1002', etc.  If the optional argument X is a
     string, that string is used as a prefix instead of `G'.
     Uninterned symbols are used in macro expansions for temporary
     variables, to ensure that their names will not conflict with
     "real" variables in the user's code.

 - Variable: *gensym-counter*
     This variable holds the counter used to generate `gensym' names.
     It is incremented after each use by `gensym'.  In Common Lisp this
     is initialized with 0, but this package initializes it with a
     random (time-dependent) value to avoid trouble when two files that
     each used `gensym' in their compilation are loaded together.

     *XEmacs note:* As of XEmacs 21.0, an uninterned symbol remains
     uninterned even after being dumped to bytecode.  Older versions of
     Emacs didn't distinguish the printed representation of interned
     and uninterned symbols, so their names had to be treated more
     carefully.

 - Function: gentemp &optional x
     This function is like `gensym', except that it produces a new
     _interned_ symbol.  If the symbol that is generated already
     exists, the function keeps incrementing the counter and trying
     again until a new symbol is generated.

  The Quiroz `cl.el' package also defined a `defkeyword' form for
creating self-quoting keyword symbols.  This package automatically
creates all keywords that are called for by `&key' argument specifiers,
and discourages the use of keywords as data unrelated to keyword
arguments, so the `defkeyword' form has been discontinued.


File: cl.info,  Node: Numbers,  Next: Sequences,  Prev: Symbols,  Up: Top

Numbers
*******

This section defines a few simple Common Lisp operations on numbers
which were left out of Emacs Lisp.

* Menu:

* Predicates on Numbers::       `plusp', `oddp', `floatp-safe', etc.
* Numerical Functions::         `abs', `expt', `floor*', etc.
* Random Numbers::              `random*', `make-random-state'
* Implementation Parameters::   `most-positive-fixnum', `most-positive-float'


File: cl.info,  Node: Predicates on Numbers,  Next: Numerical Functions,  Prev: Numbers,  Up: Numbers

Predicates on Numbers
=====================

These functions return `t' if the specified condition is true of the
numerical argument, or `nil' otherwise.

 - Function: plusp number
     This predicate tests whether NUMBER is positive.  It is an error
     if the argument is not a number.

 - Function: minusp number
     This predicate tests whether NUMBER is negative.  It is an error
     if the argument is not a number.

 - Function: oddp integer
     This predicate tests whether INTEGER is odd.  It is an error if
     the argument is not an integer.

 - Function: evenp integer
     This predicate tests whether INTEGER is even.  It is an error if
     the argument is not an integer.

 - Function: floatp-safe object
     This predicate tests whether OBJECT is a floating-point number.
     On systems that support floating-point, this is equivalent to
     `floatp'.  On other systems, this always returns `nil'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Numerical Functions,  Next: Random Numbers,  Prev: Predicates on Numbers,  Up: Numbers

Numerical Functions
===================

These functions perform various arithmetic operations on numbers.

 - Function: abs number
     This function returns the absolute value of NUMBER.  (Newer
     versions of Emacs provide this as a built-in function; this package
     defines `abs' only for Emacs 18 versions which don't provide it as
     a primitive.)

 - Function: expt base power
     This function returns BASE raised to the power of NUMBER.  (Newer
     versions of Emacs provide this as a built-in function; this
     package defines `expt' only for Emacs 18 versions which don't
     provide it as a primitive.)

 - Function: gcd &rest integers
     This function returns the Greatest Common Divisor of the arguments.
     For one argument, it returns the absolute value of that argument.
     For zero arguments, it returns zero.

 - Function: lcm &rest integers
     This function returns the Least Common Multiple of the arguments.
     For one argument, it returns the absolute value of that argument.
     For zero arguments, it returns one.

 - Function: isqrt integer
     This function computes the "integer square root" of its integer
     argument, i.e., the greatest integer less than or equal to the true
     square root of the argument.

 - Function: floor* number &optional divisor
     This function implements the Common Lisp `floor' function.  It is
     called `floor*' to avoid name conflicts with the simpler `floor'
     function built-in to Emacs 19.

     With one argument, `floor*' returns a list of two numbers: The
     argument rounded down (toward minus infinity) to an integer, and
     the "remainder" which would have to be added back to the first
     return value to yield the argument again.  If the argument is an
     integer X, the result is always the list `(X 0)'.  If the argument
     is an Emacs 19 floating-point number, the first result is a Lisp
     integer and the second is a Lisp float between 0 (inclusive) and 1
     (exclusive).

     With two arguments, `floor*' divides NUMBER by DIVISOR, and
     returns the floor of the quotient and the corresponding remainder
     as a list of two numbers.  If `(floor* X Y)' returns `(Q R)', then
     `Q*Y + R = X', with R between 0 (inclusive) and R (exclusive).
     Also, note that `(floor* X)' is exactly equivalent to `(floor* X
     1)'.

     This function is entirely compatible with Common Lisp's `floor'
     function, except that it returns the two results in a list since
     Emacs Lisp does not support multiple-valued functions.

 - Function: ceiling* number &optional divisor
     This function implements the Common Lisp `ceiling' function, which
     is analogous to `floor' except that it rounds the argument or
     quotient of the arguments up toward plus infinity.  The remainder
     will be between 0 and minus R.

 - Function: truncate* number &optional divisor
     This function implements the Common Lisp `truncate' function,
     which is analogous to `floor' except that it rounds the argument
     or quotient of the arguments toward zero.  Thus it is equivalent
     to `floor*' if the argument or quotient is positive, or to
     `ceiling*' otherwise.  The remainder has the same sign as NUMBER.

 - Function: round* number &optional divisor
     This function implements the Common Lisp `round' function, which
     is analogous to `floor' except that it rounds the argument or
     quotient of the arguments to the nearest integer.  In the case of
     a tie (the argument or quotient is exactly halfway between two
     integers), it rounds to the even integer.

 - Function: mod* number divisor
     This function returns the same value as the second return value of
     `floor'.

 - Function: rem* number divisor
     This function returns the same value as the second return value of
     `truncate'.

  These definitions are compatible with those in the Quiroz `cl.el'
package, except that this package appends `*' to certain function names
to avoid conflicts with existing Emacs 19 functions, and that the
mechanism for returning multiple values is different.


File: cl.info,  Node: Random Numbers,  Next: Implementation Parameters,  Prev: Numerical Functions,  Up: Numbers

Random Numbers
==============

This package also provides an implementation of the Common Lisp random
number generator.  It uses its own additive-congruential algorithm,
which is much more likely to give statistically clean random numbers
than the simple generators supplied by many operating systems.

 - Function: random* number &optional state
     This function returns a random nonnegative number less than
     NUMBER, and of the same type (either integer or floating-point).
     The STATE argument should be a `random-state' object which holds
     the state of the random number generator.  The function modifies
     this state object as a side effect.  If STATE is omitted, it
     defaults to the variable `*random-state*', which contains a
     pre-initialized `random-state' object.

 - Variable: *random-state*
     This variable contains the system "default" `random-state' object,
     used for calls to `random*' that do not specify an alternative
     state object.  Since any number of programs in the Emacs process
     may be accessing `*random-state*' in interleaved fashion, the
     sequence generated from this variable will be irreproducible for
     all intents and purposes.

 - Function: make-random-state &optional state
     This function creates or copies a `random-state' object.  If STATE
     is omitted or `nil', it returns a new copy of `*random-state*'.
     This is a copy in the sense that future sequences of calls to
     `(random* N)' and `(random* N S)' (where S is the new random-state
     object) will return identical sequences of random numbers.

     If STATE is a `random-state' object, this function returns a copy
     of that object.  If STATE is `t', this function returns a new
     `random-state' object seeded from the date and time.  As an
     extension to Common Lisp, STATE may also be an integer in which
     case the new object is seeded from that integer; each different
     integer seed will result in a completely different sequence of
     random numbers.

     It is legal to print a `random-state' object to a buffer or file
     and later read it back with `read'.  If a program wishes to use a
     sequence of pseudo-random numbers which can be reproduced later
     for debugging, it can call `(make-random-state t)' to get a new
     sequence, then print this sequence to a file.  When the program is
     later rerun, it can read the original run's random-state from the
     file.

 - Function: random-state-p object
     This predicate returns `t' if OBJECT is a `random-state' object,
     or `nil' otherwise.


File: cl.info,  Node: Implementation Parameters,  Prev: Random Numbers,  Up: Numbers

Implementation Parameters
=========================

This package defines several useful constants having to with numbers.

 - Variable: most-positive-fixnum
     This constant equals the largest value a Lisp integer can hold.
     It is typically `2^23-1' or `2^25-1'.

 - Variable: most-negative-fixnum
     This constant equals the smallest (most negative) value a Lisp
     integer can hold.

  The following parameters have to do with floating-point numbers.
This package determines their values by exercising the computer's
floating-point arithmetic in various ways.  Because this operation
might be slow, the code for initializing them is kept in a separate
function that must be called before the parameters can be used.

 - Function: cl-float-limits
     This function makes sure that the Common Lisp floating-point
     parameters like `most-positive-float' have been initialized.
     Until it is called, these parameters will be `nil'.  If this
     version of Emacs does not support floats (e.g., most versions of
     Emacs 18), the parameters will remain `nil'.  If the parameters
     have already been initialized, the function returns immediately.

     The algorithm makes assumptions that will be valid for most modern
     machines, but will fail if the machine's arithmetic is extremely
     unusual, e.g., decimal.

  Since true Common Lisp supports up to four different floating-point
precisions, it has families of constants like
`most-positive-single-float', `most-positive-double-float',
`most-positive-long-float', and so on.  Emacs has only one
floating-point precision, so this package omits the precision word from
the constants' names.

 - Variable: most-positive-float
     This constant equals the largest value a Lisp float can hold.  For
     those systems whose arithmetic supports infinities, this is the
     largest _finite_ value.  For IEEE machines, the value is
     approximately `1.79e+308'.

 - Variable: most-negative-float
     This constant equals the most-negative value a Lisp float can hold.
     (It is assumed to be equal to `(- most-positive-float)'.)

 - Variable: least-positive-float
     This constant equals the smallest Lisp float value greater than
     zero.  For IEEE machines, it is about `4.94e-324' if denormals are
     supported or `2.22e-308' if not.

 - Variable: least-positive-normalized-float
     This constant equals the smallest _normalized_ Lisp float greater
     than zero, i.e., the smallest value for which IEEE denormalization
     will not result in a loss of precision.  For IEEE machines, this
     value is about `2.22e-308'.  For machines that do not support the
     concept of denormalization and gradual underflow, this constant
     will always equal `least-positive-float'.

 - Variable: least-negative-float
     This constant is the negative counterpart of
     `least-positive-float'.

 - Variable: least-negative-normalized-float
     This constant is the negative counterpart of
     `least-positive-normalized-float'.

 - Variable: float-epsilon
     This constant is the smallest positive Lisp float that can be added
     to 1.0 to produce a distinct value.  Adding a smaller number to 1.0
     will yield 1.0 again due to roundoff.  For IEEE machines, epsilon
     is about `2.22e-16'.

 - Variable: float-negative-epsilon
     This is the smallest positive value that can be subtracted from
     1.0 to produce a distinct value.  For IEEE machines, it is about
     `1.11e-16'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Sequences,  Next: Lists,  Prev: Numbers,  Up: Top

Sequences
*********

Common Lisp defines a number of functions that operate on "sequences",
which are either lists, strings, or vectors.  Emacs Lisp includes a few
of these, notably `elt' and `length'; this package defines most of the
rest.

* Menu:

* Sequence Basics::          Arguments shared by all sequence functions
* Mapping over Sequences::   `mapcar*', `mapcan', `map', `every', etc.
* Sequence Functions::       `subseq', `remove*', `substitute', etc.
* Searching Sequences::      `find', `position', `count', `search', etc.
* Sorting Sequences::        `sort*', `stable-sort', `merge'


File: cl.info,  Node: Sequence Basics,  Next: Mapping over Sequences,  Prev: Sequences,  Up: Sequences

Sequence Basics
===============

Many of the sequence functions take keyword arguments; *note Argument
Lists::.  All keyword arguments are optional and, if specified, may
appear in any order.

  The `:key' argument should be passed either `nil', or a function of
one argument.  This key function is used as a filter through which the
elements of the sequence are seen; for example, `(find x y :key 'car)'
is similar to `(assoc* x y)': It searches for an element of the list
whose `car' equals `x', rather than for an element which equals `x'
itself.  If `:key' is omitted or `nil', the filter is effectively the
identity function.

  The `:test' and `:test-not' arguments should be either `nil', or
functions of two arguments.  The test function is used to compare two
sequence elements, or to compare a search value with sequence elements.
(The two values are passed to the test function in the same order as
the original sequence function arguments from which they are derived,
or, if they both come from the same sequence, in the same order as they
appear in that sequence.)  The `:test' argument specifies a function
which must return true (non-`nil') to indicate a match; instead, you
may use `:test-not' to give a function which returns _false_ to
indicate a match.  The default test function is `:test 'eql'.

  Many functions which take ITEM and `:test' or `:test-not' arguments
also come in `-if' and `-if-not' varieties, where a PREDICATE function
is passed instead of ITEM, and sequence elements match if the predicate
returns true on them (or false in the case of `-if-not').  For example:

     (remove* 0 seq :test '=)  ==  (remove-if 'zerop seq)

to remove all zeros from sequence `seq'.

  Some operations can work on a subsequence of the argument sequence;
these function take `:start' and `:end' arguments which default to zero
and the length of the sequence, respectively.  Only elements between
START (inclusive) and END (exclusive) are affected by the operation.
The END argument may be passed `nil' to signify the length of the
sequence; otherwise, both START and END must be integers, with `0 <=
START <= END <= (length SEQ)'.  If the function takes two sequence
arguments, the limits are defined by keywords `:start1' and `:end1' for
the first, and `:start2' and `:end2' for the second.

  A few functions accept a `:from-end' argument, which, if non-`nil',
causes the operation to go from right-to-left through the sequence
instead of left-to-right, and a `:count' argument, which specifies an
integer maximum number of elements to be removed or otherwise processed.

  The sequence functions make no guarantees about the order in which
the `:test', `:test-not', and `:key' functions are called on various
elements.  Therefore, it is a bad idea to depend on side effects of
these functions.  For example, `:from-end' may cause the sequence to be
scanned actually in reverse, or it may be scanned forwards but
computing a result "as if" it were scanned backwards.  (Some functions,
like `mapcar*' and `every', _do_ specify exactly the order in which the
function is called so side effects are perfectly acceptable in those
cases.)

  Strings in GNU Emacs 19 may contain "text properties" as well as
character data.  Except as noted, it is undefined whether or not text
properties are preserved by sequence functions.  For example, `(remove*
?A STR)' may or may not preserve the properties of the characters
copied from STR into the result.


File: cl.info,  Node: Mapping over Sequences,  Next: Sequence Functions,  Prev: Sequence Basics,  Up: Sequences

Mapping over Sequences
======================

These functions "map" the function you specify over the elements of
lists or arrays.  They are all variations on the theme of the built-in
function `mapcar'.

 - Function: mapcar* function seq &rest more-seqs
     This function calls FUNCTION on successive parallel sets of
     elements from its argument sequences.  Given a single SEQ argument
     it is equivalent to `mapcar'; given N sequences, it calls the
     function with the first elements of each of the sequences as the N
     arguments to yield the first element of the result list, then with
     the second elements, and so on.  The mapping stops as soon as the
     shortest sequence runs out.  The argument sequences may be any
     mixture of lists, strings, and vectors; the return sequence is
     always a list.

     Common Lisp's `mapcar' accepts multiple arguments but works only
     on lists; Emacs Lisp's `mapcar' accepts a single sequence
     argument.  This package's `mapcar*' works as a compatible superset
     of both.

 - Function: map result-type function seq &rest more-seqs
     This function maps FUNCTION over the argument sequences, just like
     `mapcar*', but it returns a sequence of type RESULT-TYPE rather
     than a list.  RESULT-TYPE must be one of the following symbols:
     `vector', `string', `list' (in which case the effect is the same
     as for `mapcar*'), or `nil' (in which case the results are thrown
     away and `map' returns `nil').

 - Function: maplist function list &rest more-lists
     This function calls FUNCTION on each of its argument lists, then
     on the `cdr's of those lists, and so on, until the shortest list
     runs out.  The results are returned in the form of a list.  Thus,
     `maplist' is like `mapcar*' except that it passes in the list
     pointers themselves rather than the `car's of the advancing
     pointers.

 - Function: mapc function seq &rest more-seqs
     This function is like `mapcar*', except that the values returned
     by FUNCTION are ignored and thrown away rather than being
     collected into a list.  The return value of `mapc' is SEQ, the
     first sequence.

 - Function: mapl function list &rest more-lists
     This function is like `maplist', except that it throws away the
     values returned by FUNCTION.

 - Function: mapcan function seq &rest more-seqs
     This function is like `mapcar*', except that it concatenates the
     return values (which must be lists) using `nconc', rather than
     simply collecting them into a list.

 - Function: mapcon function list &rest more-lists
     This function is like `maplist', except that it concatenates the
     return values using `nconc'.

 - Function: some predicate seq &rest more-seqs
     This function calls PREDICATE on each element of SEQ in turn; if
     PREDICATE returns a non-`nil' value, `some' returns that value,
     otherwise it returns `nil'.  Given several sequence arguments, it
     steps through the sequences in parallel until the shortest one
     runs out, just as in `mapcar*'.  You can rely on the left-to-right
     order in which the elements are visited, and on the fact that
     mapping stops immediately as soon as PREDICATE returns non-`nil'.

 - Function: every predicate seq &rest more-seqs
     This function calls PREDICATE on each element of the sequence(s)
     in turn; it returns `nil' as soon as PREDICATE returns `nil' for
     any element, or `t' if the predicate was true for all elements.

 - Function: notany predicate seq &rest more-seqs
     This function calls PREDICATE on each element of the sequence(s)
     in turn; it returns `nil' as soon as PREDICATE returns a non-`nil'
     value for any element, or `t' if the predicate was `nil' for all
     elements.

 - Function: notevery predicate seq &rest more-seqs
     This function calls PREDICATE on each element of the sequence(s)
     in turn; it returns a non-`nil' value as soon as PREDICATE returns
     `nil' for any element, or `t' if the predicate was true for all
     elements.

 - Function: reduce function seq &key :from-end :start :end
          :initial-value :key
     This function combines the elements of SEQ using an associative
     binary operation.  Suppose FUNCTION is `*' and SEQ is the list `(2
     3 4 5)'.  The first two elements of the list are combined with `(*
     2 3) = 6'; this is combined with the next element, `(* 6 4) = 24',
     and that is combined with the final element: `(* 24 5) = 120'.
     Note that the `*' function happens to be self-reducing, so that
     `(* 2 3 4 5)' has the same effect as an explicit call to `reduce'.

     If `:from-end' is true, the reduction is right-associative instead
     of left-associative:

          (reduce '- '(1 2 3 4))
               == (- (- (- 1 2) 3) 4) => -8
          (reduce '- '(1 2 3 4) :from-end t)
               == (- 1 (- 2 (- 3 4))) => -2

     If `:key' is specified, it is a function of one argument which is
     called on each of the sequence elements in turn.

     If `:initial-value' is specified, it is effectively added to the
     front (or rear in the case of `:from-end') of the sequence.  The
     `:key' function is _not_ applied to the initial value.

     If the sequence, including the initial value, has exactly one
     element then that element is returned without ever calling
     FUNCTION.  If the sequence is empty (and there is no initial
     value), then FUNCTION is called with no arguments to obtain the
     return value.

  All of these mapping operations can be expressed conveniently in
terms of the `loop' macro.  In compiled code, `loop' will be faster
since it generates the loop as in-line code with no function calls.


File: cl.info,  Node: Sequence Functions,  Next: Searching Sequences,  Prev: Mapping over Sequences,  Up: Sequences

Sequence Functions
==================

This section describes a number of Common Lisp functions for operating
on sequences.

 - Function: subseq sequence start &optional end
     This function returns a given subsequence of the argument
     SEQUENCE, which may be a list, string, or vector.  The indices
     START and END must be in range, and START must be no greater than
     END.  If END is omitted, it defaults to the length of the
     sequence.  The return value is always a copy; it does not share
     structure with SEQUENCE.

     As an extension to Common Lisp, START and/or END may be negative,
     in which case they represent a distance back from the end of the
     sequence.  This is for compatibility with Emacs' `substring'
     function.  Note that `subseq' is the _only_ sequence function that
     allows negative START and END.

     You can use `setf' on a `subseq' form to replace a specified range
     of elements with elements from another sequence.  The replacement
     is done as if by `replace', described below.

 - Function: concatenate result-type &rest seqs
     This function concatenates the argument sequences together to form
     a result sequence of type RESULT-TYPE, one of the symbols
     `vector', `string', or `list'.  The arguments are always copied,
     even in cases such as `(concatenate 'list '(1 2 3))' where the
     result is identical to an argument.

 - Function: fill seq item &key :start :end
     This function fills the elements of the sequence (or the specified
     part of the sequence) with the value ITEM.

 - Function: replace seq1 seq2 &key :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2
     This function copies part of SEQ2 into part of SEQ1.  The sequence
     SEQ1 is not stretched or resized; the amount of data copied is
     simply the shorter of the source and destination (sub)sequences.
     The function returns SEQ1.

     If SEQ1 and SEQ2 are `eq', then the replacement will work
     correctly even if the regions indicated by the start and end
     arguments overlap.  However, if SEQ1 and SEQ2 are lists which
     share storage but are not `eq', and the start and end arguments
     specify overlapping regions, the effect is undefined.

 - Function: remove* item seq &key :test :test-not :key :count :start
          :end :from-end
     This returns a copy of SEQ with all elements matching ITEM
     removed.  The result may share storage with or be `eq' to SEQ in
     some circumstances, but the original SEQ will not be modified.
     The `:test', `:test-not', and `:key' arguments define the matching
     test that is used; by default, elements `eql' to ITEM are removed.
     The `:count' argument specifies the maximum number of matching
     elements that can be removed (only the leftmost COUNT matches are
     removed).  The `:start' and `:end' arguments specify a region in
     SEQ in which elements will be removed; elements outside that
     region are not matched or removed.  The `:from-end' argument, if
     true, says that elements should be deleted from the end of the
     sequence rather than the beginning (this matters only if COUNT was
     also specified).

 - Function: delete* item seq &key :test :test-not :key :count :start
          :end :from-end
     This deletes all elements of SEQ which match ITEM.  It is a
     destructive operation.  Since Emacs Lisp does not support
     stretchable strings or vectors, this is the same as `remove*' for
     those sequence types.  On lists, `remove*' will copy the list if
     necessary to preserve the original list, whereas `delete*' will
     splice out parts of the argument list.  Compare `append' and
     `nconc', which are analogous non-destructive and destructive list
     operations in Emacs Lisp.

  The predicate-oriented functions `remove-if', `remove-if-not',
`delete-if', and `delete-if-not' are defined similarly.

 - Function: delete item list
     This MacLisp-compatible function deletes from LIST all elements
     which are `equal' to ITEM.  The `delete' function is built-in to
     Emacs 19; this package defines it equivalently in Emacs 18.

 - Function: remove item list
     This function removes from LIST all elements which are `equal' to
     ITEM.  This package defines it for symmetry with `delete', even
     though `remove' is not built-in to Emacs 19.

 - Function: remq item list
     This function removes from LIST all elements which are `eq' to
     ITEM.  This package defines it for symmetry with `delq', even
     though `remq' is not built-in to Emacs 19.

 - Function: remove-duplicates seq &key :test :test-not :key :start
          :end :from-end
     This function returns a copy of SEQ with duplicate elements
     removed.  Specifically, if two elements from the sequence match
     according to the `:test', `:test-not', and `:key' arguments, only
     the rightmost one is retained.  If `:from-end' is true, the
     leftmost one is retained instead.  If `:start' or `:end' is
     specified, only elements within that subsequence are examined or
     removed.

 - Function: delete-duplicates seq &key :test :test-not :key :start
          :end :from-end
     This function deletes duplicate elements from SEQ.  It is a
     destructive version of `remove-duplicates'.

 - Function: substitute new old seq &key :test :test-not :key :count
          :start :end :from-end
     This function returns a copy of SEQ, with all elements matching
     OLD replaced with NEW.  The `:count', `:start', `:end', and
     `:from-end' arguments may be used to limit the number of
     substitutions made.

 - Function: nsubstitute new old seq &key :test :test-not :key :count
          :start :end :from-end
     This is a destructive version of `substitute'; it performs the
     substitution using `setcar' or `aset' rather than by returning a
     changed copy of the sequence.

  The `substitute-if', `substitute-if-not', `nsubstitute-if', and
`nsubstitute-if-not' functions are defined similarly.  For these, a
PREDICATE is given in place of the OLD argument.


File: cl.info,  Node: Searching Sequences,  Next: Sorting Sequences,  Prev: Sequence Functions,  Up: Sequences

Searching Sequences
===================

These functions search for elements or subsequences in a sequence.
(See also `member*' and `assoc*'; *note Lists::.)

 - Function: find item seq &key :test :test-not :key :start :end
          :from-end
     This function searches SEQ for an element matching ITEM.  If it
     finds a match, it returns the matching element.  Otherwise, it
     returns `nil'.  It returns the leftmost match, unless `:from-end'
     is true, in which case it returns the rightmost match.  The
     `:start' and `:end' arguments may be used to limit the range of
     elements that are searched.

 - Function: position item seq &key :test :test-not :key :start :end
          :from-end
     This function is like `find', except that it returns the integer
     position in the sequence of the matching item rather than the item
     itself.  The position is relative to the start of the sequence as
     a whole, even if `:start' is non-zero.  The function returns `nil'
     if no matching element was found.

 - Function: count item seq &key :test :test-not :key :start :end
     This function returns the number of elements of SEQ which match
     ITEM.  The result is always a nonnegative integer.

  The `find-if', `find-if-not', `position-if', `position-if-not',
`count-if', and `count-if-not' functions are defined similarly.

 - Function: mismatch seq1 seq2 &key :test :test-not :key :start1 :end1
          :start2 :end2 :from-end
     This function compares the specified parts of SEQ1 and SEQ2.  If
     they are the same length and the corresponding elements match
     (according to `:test', `:test-not', and `:key'), the function
     returns `nil'.  If there is a mismatch, the function returns the
     index (relative to SEQ1) of the first mismatching element.  This
     will be the leftmost pair of elements which do not match, or the
     position at which the shorter of the two otherwise-matching
     sequences runs out.

     If `:from-end' is true, then the elements are compared from right
     to left starting at `(1- END1)' and `(1- END2)'.  If the sequences
     differ, then one plus the index of the rightmost difference
     (relative to SEQ1) is returned.

     An interesting example is `(mismatch str1 str2 :key 'upcase)',
     which compares two strings case-insensitively.

 - Function: search seq1 seq2 &key :test :test-not :key :from-end
          :start1 :end1 :start2 :end2
     This function searches SEQ2 for a subsequence that matches SEQ1
     (or part of it specified by `:start1' and `:end1'.)  Only matches
     which fall entirely within the region defined by `:start2' and
     `:end2' will be considered.  The return value is the index of the
     leftmost element of the leftmost match, relative to the start of
     SEQ2, or `nil' if no matches were found.  If `:from-end' is true,
     the function finds the _rightmost_ matching subsequence.


File: cl.info,  Node: Sorting Sequences,  Prev: Searching Sequences,  Up: Sequences

Sorting Sequences
=================

 - Function: sort* seq predicate &key :key
     This function sorts SEQ into increasing order as determined by
     using PREDICATE to compare pairs of elements.  PREDICATE should
     return true (non-`nil') if and only if its first argument is less
     than (not equal to) its second argument.  For example, `<' and
     `string-lessp' are suitable predicate functions for sorting
     numbers and strings, respectively; `>' would sort numbers into
     decreasing rather than increasing order.

     This function differs from Emacs' built-in `sort' in that it can
     operate on any type of sequence, not just lists.  Also, it accepts
     a `:key' argument which is used to preprocess data fed to the
     PREDICATE function.  For example,

          (setq data (sort data 'string-lessp :key 'downcase))

     sorts DATA, a sequence of strings, into increasing alphabetical
     order without regard to case.  A `:key' function of `car' would be
     useful for sorting association lists.

     The `sort*' function is destructive; it sorts lists by actually
     rearranging the `cdr' pointers in suitable fashion.

 - Function: stable-sort seq predicate &key :key
     This function sorts SEQ "stably", meaning two elements which are
     equal in terms of PREDICATE are guaranteed not to be rearranged
     out of their original order by the sort.

     In practice, `sort*' and `stable-sort' are equivalent in Emacs
     Lisp because the underlying `sort' function is stable by default.
     However, this package reserves the right to use non-stable methods
     for `sort*' in the future.

 - Function: merge type seq1 seq2 predicate &key :key
     This function merges two sequences SEQ1 and SEQ2 by interleaving
     their elements.  The result sequence, of type TYPE (in the sense
     of `concatenate'), has length equal to the sum of the lengths of
     the two input sequences.  The sequences may be modified
     destructively.  Order of elements within SEQ1 and SEQ2 is
     preserved in the interleaving; elements of the two sequences are
     compared by PREDICATE (in the sense of `sort') and the lesser
     element goes first in the result.  When elements are equal, those
     from SEQ1 precede those from SEQ2 in the result.  Thus, if SEQ1
     and SEQ2 are both sorted according to PREDICATE, then the result
     will be a merged sequence which is (stably) sorted according to
     PREDICATE.


File: cl.info,  Node: Lists,  Next: Hash Tables,  Prev: Sequences,  Up: Top

Lists
*****

The functions described here operate on lists.

* Menu:

* List Functions::                `caddr', `first', `last', `list*', etc.
* Substitution of Expressions::   `subst', `sublis', etc.
* Lists as Sets::                 `member*', `adjoin', `union', etc.
* Association Lists::             `assoc*', `rassoc*', `acons', `pairlis'


File: cl.info,  Node: List Functions,  Next: Substitution of Expressions,  Prev: Lists,  Up: Lists

List Functions
==============

This section describes a number of simple operations on lists, i.e.,
chains of cons cells.

 - Function: caddr x
     This function is equivalent to `(car (cdr (cdr X)))'.  Likewise,
     this package defines all 28 `cXXXr' functions where XXX is up to
     four `a's and/or `d's.  All of these functions are `setf'-able,
     and calls to them are expanded inline by the byte-compiler for
     maximum efficiency.

 - Function: first x
     This function is a synonym for `(car X)'.  Likewise, the functions
     `second', `third', ..., through `tenth' return the given element
     of the list X.

 - Function: rest x
     This function is a synonym for `(cdr X)'.

 - Function: endp x
     Common Lisp defines this function to act like `null', but
     signalling an error if `x' is neither a `nil' nor a cons cell.
     This package simply defines `endp' as a synonym for `null'.

 - Function: list-length x
     This function returns the length of list X, exactly like `(length
     X)', except that if X is a circular list (where the cdr-chain
     forms a loop rather than terminating with `nil'), this function
     returns `nil'.  (The regular `length' function would get stuck if
     given a circular list.)

 - Function: last x &optional n
     This function returns the last cons, or the Nth-to-last cons, of
     the list X.  If N is omitted it defaults to 1.  The "last cons"
     means the first cons cell of the list whose `cdr' is not another
     cons cell.  (For normal lists, the `cdr' of the last cons will be
     `nil'.)  This function returns `nil' if X is `nil' or shorter than
     N.  Note that the last _element_ of the list is `(car (last X))'.

 - Function: butlast x &optional n
     This function returns the list X with the last element, or the
     last N elements, removed.  If N is greater than zero it makes a
     copy of the list so as not to damage the original list.  In
     general, `(append (butlast X N) (last X N))' will return a list
     equal to X.

 - Function: nbutlast x &optional n
     This is a version of `butlast' that works by destructively
     modifying the `cdr' of the appropriate element, rather than making
     a copy of the list.

 - Function: list* arg &rest others
     This function constructs a list of its arguments.  The final
     argument becomes the `cdr' of the last cell constructed.  Thus,
     `(list* A B C)' is equivalent to `(cons A (cons B C))', and
     `(list* A B nil)' is equivalent to `(list A B)'.

     (Note that this function really is called `list*' in Common Lisp;
     it is not a name invented for this package like `member*' or
     `defun*'.)

 - Function: ldiff list sublist
     If SUBLIST is a sublist of LIST, i.e., is `eq' to one of the cons
     cells of LIST, then this function returns a copy of the part of
     LIST up to but not including SUBLIST.  For example, `(ldiff x
     (cddr x))' returns the first two elements of the list `x'.  The
     result is a copy; the original LIST is not modified.  If SUBLIST
     is not a sublist of LIST, a copy of the entire LIST is returned.

 - Function: copy-list list
     This function returns a copy of the list LIST.  It copies dotted
     lists like `(1 2 . 3)' correctly.

 - Function: copy-tree x &optional vecp
     This function returns a copy of the tree of cons cells X.  Unlike
     `copy-sequence' (and its alias `copy-list'), which copies only
     along the `cdr' direction, this function copies (recursively)
     along both the `car' and the `cdr' directions.  If X is not a cons
     cell, the function simply returns X unchanged.  If the optional
     VECP argument is true, this function copies vectors (recursively)
     as well as cons cells.

 - Function: tree-equal x y &key :test :test-not :key
     This function compares two trees of cons cells.  If X and Y are
     both cons cells, their `car's and `cdr's are compared recursively.
     If neither X nor Y is a cons cell, they are compared by `eql', or
     according to the specified test.  The `:key' function, if
     specified, is applied to the elements of both trees.  *Note
     Sequences::.


File: cl.info,  Node: Substitution of Expressions,  Next: Lists as Sets,  Prev: List Functions,  Up: Lists

Substitution of Expressions
===========================

These functions substitute elements throughout a tree of cons cells.
(*Note Sequence Functions::, for the `substitute' function, which works
on just the top-level elements of a list.)

 - Function: subst new old tree &key :test :test-not :key
     This function substitutes occurrences of OLD with NEW in TREE, a
     tree of cons cells.  It returns a substituted tree, which will be
     a copy except that it may share storage with the argument TREE in
     parts where no substitutions occurred.  The original TREE is not
     modified.  This function recurses on, and compares against OLD,
     both `car's and `cdr's of the component cons cells.  If OLD is
     itself a cons cell, then matching cells in the tree are
     substituted as usual without recursively substituting in that
     cell.  Comparisons with OLD are done according to the specified
     test (`eql' by default).  The `:key' function is applied to the
     elements of the tree but not to OLD.

 - Function: nsubst new old tree &key :test :test-not :key
     This function is like `subst', except that it works by destructive
     modification (by `setcar' or `setcdr') rather than copying.

  The `subst-if', `subst-if-not', `nsubst-if', and `nsubst-if-not'
functions are defined similarly.

 - Function: sublis alist tree &key :test :test-not :key
     This function is like `subst', except that it takes an association
     list ALIST of OLD-NEW pairs.  Each element of the tree (after
     applying the `:key' function, if any), is compared with the `car's
     of ALIST; if it matches, it is replaced by the corresponding `cdr'.

 - Function: nsublis alist tree &key :test :test-not :key
     This is a destructive version of `sublis'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Lists as Sets,  Next: Association Lists,  Prev: Substitution of Expressions,  Up: Lists

Lists as Sets
=============

These functions perform operations on lists which represent sets of
elements.

 - Function: member item list
     This MacLisp-compatible function searches LIST for an element
     which is `equal' to ITEM.  The `member' function is built-in to
     Emacs 19; this package defines it equivalently in Emacs 18.  See
     the following function for a Common-Lisp compatible version.

 - Function: member* item list &key :test :test-not :key
     This function searches LIST for an element matching ITEM.  If a
     match is found, it returns the cons cell whose `car' was the
     matching element.  Otherwise, it returns `nil'.  Elements are
     compared by `eql' by default; you can use the `:test',
     `:test-not', and `:key' arguments to modify this behavior.  *Note
     Sequences::.

     Note that this function's name is suffixed by `*' to avoid the
     incompatible `member' function defined in Emacs 19.  (That
     function uses `equal' for comparisons; it is equivalent to
     `(member* ITEM LIST :test 'equal)'.)

  The `member-if' and `member-if-not' functions analogously search for
elements which satisfy a given predicate.

 - Function: tailp sublist list
     This function returns `t' if SUBLIST is a sublist of LIST, i.e.,
     if SUBLIST is `eql' to LIST or to any of its `cdr's.

 - Function: adjoin item list &key :test :test-not :key
     This function conses ITEM onto the front of LIST, like `(cons ITEM
     LIST)', but only if ITEM is not already present on the list (as
     determined by `member*').  If a `:key' argument is specified, it
     is applied to ITEM as well as to the elements of LIST during the
     search, on the reasoning that ITEM is "about" to become part of
     the list.

 - Function: union list1 list2 &key :test :test-not :key
     This function combines two lists which represent sets of items,
     returning a list that represents the union of those two sets.  The
     result list will contain all items which appear in LIST1 or LIST2,
     and no others.  If an item appears in both LIST1 and LIST2 it will
     be copied only once.  If an item is duplicated in LIST1 or LIST2,
     it is undefined whether or not that duplication will survive in the
     result list.  The order of elements in the result list is also
     undefined.

 - Function: nunion list1 list2 &key :test :test-not :key
     This is a destructive version of `union'; rather than copying, it
     tries to reuse the storage of the argument lists if possible.

 - Function: intersection list1 list2 &key :test :test-not :key
     This function computes the intersection of the sets represented by
     LIST1 and LIST2.  It returns the list of items which appear in
     both LIST1 and LIST2.

 - Function: nintersection list1 list2 &key :test :test-not :key
     This is a destructive version of `intersection'.  It tries to
     reuse storage of LIST1 rather than copying.  It does _not_ reuse
     the storage of LIST2.

 - Function: set-difference list1 list2 &key :test :test-not :key
     This function computes the "set difference" of LIST1 and LIST2,
     i.e., the set of elements that appear in LIST1 but _not_ in LIST2.

 - Function: nset-difference list1 list2 &key :test :test-not :key
     This is a destructive `set-difference', which will try to reuse
     LIST1 if possible.

 - Function: set-exclusive-or list1 list2 &key :test :test-not :key
     This function computes the "set exclusive or" of LIST1 and LIST2,
     i.e., the set of elements that appear in exactly one of LIST1 and
     LIST2.

 - Function: nset-exclusive-or list1 list2 &key :test :test-not :key
     This is a destructive `set-exclusive-or', which will try to reuse
     LIST1 and LIST2 if possible.

 - Function: subsetp list1 list2 &key :test :test-not :key
     This function checks whether LIST1 represents a subset of LIST2,
     i.e., whether every element of LIST1 also appears in LIST2.


File: cl.info,  Node: Association Lists,  Prev: Lists as Sets,  Up: Lists

Association Lists
=================

An "association list" is a list representing a mapping from one set of
values to another; any list whose elements are cons cells is an
association list.

 - Function: assoc* item a-list &key :test :test-not :key
     This function searches the association list A-LIST for an element
     whose `car' matches (in the sense of `:test', `:test-not', and
     `:key', or by comparison with `eql') a given ITEM.  It returns the
     matching element, if any, otherwise `nil'.  It ignores elements of
     A-LIST which are not cons cells.  (This corresponds to the
     behavior of `assq' and `assoc' in Emacs Lisp; Common Lisp's
     `assoc' ignores `nil's but considers any other non-cons elements
     of A-LIST to be an error.)

 - Function: rassoc* item a-list &key :test :test-not :key
     This function searches for an element whose `cdr' matches ITEM.
     If A-LIST represents a mapping, this applies the inverse of the
     mapping to ITEM.

 - Function: rassoc item a-list
     This function searches like `rassoc*' with a `:test' argument of
     `equal'.  It is analogous to Emacs Lisp's standard `assoc'
     function, which derives from the MacLisp rather than the Common
     Lisp tradition.

  The `assoc-if', `assoc-if-not', `rassoc-if', and `rassoc-if-not'
functions are defined similarly.

  Two simple functions for constructing association lists are:

 - Function: acons key value alist
     This is equivalent to `(cons (cons KEY VALUE) ALIST)'.

 - Function: pairlis keys values &optional alist
     This is equivalent to `(nconc (mapcar* 'cons KEYS VALUES) ALIST)'.


File: cl.info,  Node: Hash Tables,  Next: Structures,  Prev: Lists,  Up: Top

Hash Tables
***********

Hash tables are now implemented directly in the C code and documented in
*Note Hash Tables: (lispref)Hash Tables.


File: cl.info,  Node: Structures,  Next: Assertions,  Prev: Hash Tables,  Up: Top

Structures
**********

The Common Lisp "structure" mechanism provides a general way to define
data types similar to C's `struct' types.  A structure is a Lisp object
containing some number of "slots", each of which can hold any Lisp data
object.  Functions are provided for accessing and setting the slots,
creating or copying structure objects, and recognizing objects of a
particular structure type.

  In true Common Lisp, each structure type is a new type distinct from
all existing Lisp types.  Since the underlying Emacs Lisp system
provides no way to create new distinct types, this package implements
structures as vectors (or lists upon request) with a special "tag"
symbol to identify them.

 - Special Form: defstruct name slots...
     The `defstruct' form defines a new structure type called NAME,
     with the specified SLOTS.  (The SLOTS may begin with a string
     which documents the structure type.)  In the simplest case, NAME
     and each of the SLOTS are symbols.  For example,

          (defstruct person name age sex)

     defines a struct type called `person' which contains three slots.
     Given a `person' object P, you can access those slots by calling
     `(person-name P)', `(person-age P)', and `(person-sex P)'.  You
     can also change these slots by using `setf' on any of these place
     forms:

          (incf (person-age birthday-boy))

     You can create a new `person' by calling `make-person', which
     takes keyword arguments `:name', `:age', and `:sex' to specify the
     initial values of these slots in the new object.  (Omitting any of
     these arguments leaves the corresponding slot "undefined,"
     according to the Common Lisp standard; in Emacs Lisp, such
     uninitialized slots are filled with `nil'.)

     Given a `person', `(copy-person P)' makes a new object of the same
     type whose slots are `eq' to those of P.

     Given any Lisp object X, `(person-p X)' returns true if X looks
     like a `person', false otherwise.  (Again, in Common Lisp this
     predicate would be exact; in Emacs Lisp the best it can do is
     verify that X is a vector of the correct length which starts with
     the correct tag symbol.)

     Accessors like `person-name' normally check their arguments
     (effectively using `person-p') and signal an error if the argument
     is the wrong type.  This check is affected by `(optimize (safety
     ...))' declarations.  Safety level 1, the default, uses a somewhat
     optimized check that will detect all incorrect arguments, but may
     use an uninformative error message (e.g., "expected a vector"
     instead of "expected a `person'").  Safety level 0 omits all
     checks except as provided by the underlying `aref' call; safety
     levels 2 and 3 do rigorous checking that will always print a
     descriptive error message for incorrect inputs.  *Note
     Declarations::.

          (setq dave (make-person :name "Dave" :sex 'male))
               => [cl-struct-person "Dave" nil male]
          (setq other (copy-person dave))
               => [cl-struct-person "Dave" nil male]
          (eq dave other)
               => nil
          (eq (person-name dave) (person-name other))
               => t
          (person-p dave)
               => t
          (person-p [1 2 3 4])
               => nil
          (person-p "Bogus")
               => nil
          (person-p '[cl-struct-person counterfeit person object])
               => t

     In general, NAME is either a name symbol or a list of a name
     symbol followed by any number of "struct options"; each SLOT is
     either a slot symbol or a list of the form `(SLOT-NAME
     DEFAULT-VALUE SLOT-OPTIONS...)'.  The DEFAULT-VALUE is a Lisp form
     which is evaluated any time an instance of the structure type is
     created without specifying that slot's value.

     Common Lisp defines several slot options, but the only one
     implemented in this package is `:read-only'.  A non-`nil' value
     for this option means the slot should not be `setf'-able; the
     slot's value is determined when the object is created and does not
     change afterward.

          (defstruct person
            (name nil :read-only t)
            age
            (sex 'unknown))

     Any slot options other than `:read-only' are ignored.

     For obscure historical reasons, structure options take a different
     form than slot options.  A structure option is either a keyword
     symbol, or a list beginning with a keyword symbol possibly followed
     by arguments.  (By contrast, slot options are key-value pairs not
     enclosed in lists.)

          (defstruct (person (:constructor create-person)
                             (:type list)
                             :named)
            name age sex)

     The following structure options are recognized.

    `:conc-name'
          The argument is a symbol whose print name is used as the
          prefix for the names of slot accessor functions.  The default
          is the name of the struct type followed by a hyphen.  The
          option `(:conc-name p-)' would change this prefix to `p-'.
          Specifying `nil' as an argument means no prefix, so that the
          slot names themselves are used to name the accessor functions.

    `:constructor'
          In the simple case, this option takes one argument which is an
          alternate name to use for the constructor function.  The
          default is `make-NAME', e.g., `make-person'.  The above
          example changes this to `create-person'.  Specifying `nil' as
          an argument means that no standard constructor should be
          generated at all.

          In the full form of this option, the constructor name is
          followed by an arbitrary argument list.  *Note Program
          Structure::, for a description of the format of Common Lisp
          argument lists.  All options, such as `&rest' and `&key', are
          supported.  The argument names should match the slot names;
          each slot is initialized from the corresponding argument.
          Slots whose names do not appear in the argument list are
          initialized based on the DEFAULT-VALUE in their slot
          descriptor.  Also, `&optional' and `&key' arguments which
          don't specify defaults take their defaults from the slot
          descriptor.  It is legal to include arguments which don't
          correspond to slot names; these are useful if they are
          referred to in the defaults for optional, keyword, or `&aux'
          arguments which _do_ correspond to slots.

          You can specify any number of full-format `:constructor'
          options on a structure.  The default constructor is still
          generated as well unless you disable it with a simple-format
          `:constructor' option.

               (defstruct
                (person
                 (:constructor nil)   ; no default constructor
                 (:constructor new-person (name sex &optional (age 0)))
                 (:constructor new-hound (&key (name "Rover")
                                               (dog-years 0)
                                          &aux (age (* 7 dog-years))
                                               (sex 'canine))))
                name age sex)

          The first constructor here takes its arguments positionally
          rather than by keyword.  (In official Common Lisp
          terminology, constructors that work By Order of Arguments
          instead of by keyword are called "BOA constructors."  No, I'm
          not making this up.)  For example, `(new-person "Jane"
          'female)' generates a person whose slots are `"Jane"', 0, and
          `female', respectively.

          The second constructor takes two keyword arguments, `:name',
          which initializes the `name' slot and defaults to `"Rover"',
          and `:dog-years', which does not itself correspond to a slot
          but which is used to initialize the `age' slot.  The `sex'
          slot is forced to the symbol `canine' with no syntax for
          overriding it.

    `:copier'
          The argument is an alternate name for the copier function for
          this type.  The default is `copy-NAME'.  `nil' means not to
          generate a copier function.  (In this implementation, all
          copier functions are simply synonyms for `copy-sequence'.)

    `:predicate'
          The argument is an alternate name for the predicate which
          recognizes objects of this type.  The default is `NAME-p'.
          `nil' means not to generate a predicate function.  (If the
          `:type' option is used without the `:named' option, no
          predicate is ever generated.)

          In true Common Lisp, `typep' is always able to recognize a
          structure object even if `:predicate' was used.  In this
          package, `typep' simply looks for a function called
          `TYPENAME-p', so it will work for structure types only if
          they used the default predicate name.

    `:include'
          This option implements a very limited form of C++-style
          inheritance.  The argument is the name of another structure
          type previously created with `defstruct'.  The effect is to
          cause the new structure type to inherit all of the included
          structure's slots (plus, of course, any new slots described
          by this struct's slot descriptors).  The new structure is
          considered a "specialization" of the included one.  In fact,
          the predicate and slot accessors for the included type will
          also accept objects of the new type.

          If there are extra arguments to the `:include' option after
          the included-structure name, these options are treated as
          replacement slot descriptors for slots in the included
          structure, possibly with modified default values.  Borrowing
          an example from Steele:

               (defstruct person name (age 0) sex)
                    => person
               (defstruct (astronaut (:include person (age 45)))
                 helmet-size
                 (favorite-beverage 'tang))
                    => astronaut
               
               (setq joe (make-person :name "Joe"))
                    => [cl-struct-person "Joe" 0 nil]
               (setq buzz (make-astronaut :name "Buzz"))
                    => [cl-struct-astronaut "Buzz" 45 nil nil tang]
               
               (list (person-p joe) (person-p buzz))
                    => (t t)
               (list (astronaut-p joe) (astronaut-p buzz))
                    => (nil t)
               
               (person-name buzz)
                    => "Buzz"
               (astronaut-name joe)
                    => error: "astronaut-name accessing a non-astronaut"

          Thus, if `astronaut' is a specialization of `person', then
          every `astronaut' is also a `person' (but not the other way
          around).  Every `astronaut' includes all the slots of a
          `person', plus extra slots that are specific to astronauts.
          Operations that work on people (like `person-name') work on
          astronauts just like other people.

    `:print-function'
          In full Common Lisp, this option allows you to specify a
          function which is called to print an instance of the
          structure type.  The Emacs Lisp system offers no hooks into
          the Lisp printer which would allow for such a feature, so
          this package simply ignores `:print-function'.

    `:type'
          The argument should be one of the symbols `vector' or `list'.
          This tells which underlying Lisp data type should be used to
          implement the new structure type.  Vectors are used by
          default, but `(:type list)' will cause structure objects to
          be stored as lists instead.

          The vector representation for structure objects has the
          advantage that all structure slots can be accessed quickly,
          although creating vectors is a bit slower in Emacs Lisp.
          Lists are easier to create, but take a relatively long time
          accessing the later slots.

    `:named'
          This option, which takes no arguments, causes a
          characteristic "tag" symbol to be stored at the front of the
          structure object.  Using `:type' without also using `:named'
          will result in a structure type stored as plain vectors or
          lists with no identifying features.

          The default, if you don't specify `:type' explicitly, is to
          use named vectors.  Therefore, `:named' is only useful in
          conjunction with `:type'.

               (defstruct (person1) name age sex)
               (defstruct (person2 (:type list) :named) name age sex)
               (defstruct (person3 (:type list)) name age sex)
               
               (setq p1 (make-person1))
                    => [cl-struct-person1 nil nil nil]
               (setq p2 (make-person2))
                    => (person2 nil nil nil)
               (setq p3 (make-person3))
                    => (nil nil nil)
               
               (person1-p p1)
                    => t
               (person2-p p2)
                    => t
               (person3-p p3)
                    => error: function person3-p undefined

          Since unnamed structures don't have tags, `defstruct' is not
          able to make a useful predicate for recognizing them.  Also,
          accessors like `person3-name' will be generated but they will
          not be able to do any type checking.  The `person3-name'
          function, for example, will simply be a synonym for `car' in
          this case.  By contrast, `person2-name' is able to verify
          that its argument is indeed a `person2' object before
          proceeding.

    `:initial-offset'
          The argument must be a nonnegative integer.  It specifies a
          number of slots to be left "empty" at the front of the
          structure.  If the structure is named, the tag appears at the
          specified position in the list or vector; otherwise, the first
          slot appears at that position.  Earlier positions are filled
          with `nil' by the constructors and ignored otherwise.  If the
          type `:include's another type, then `:initial-offset'
          specifies a number of slots to be skipped between the last
          slot of the included type and the first new slot.

  Except as noted, the `defstruct' facility of this package is entirely
compatible with that of Common Lisp.


File: cl.info,  Node: Assertions,  Next: Efficiency Concerns,  Prev: Structures,  Up: Top

Assertions and Errors
*********************

This section describes two macros that test "assertions", i.e.,
conditions which must be true if the program is operating correctly.
Assertions never add to the behavior of a Lisp program; they simply
make "sanity checks" to make sure everything is as it should be.

  If the optimization property `speed' has been set to 3, and `safety'
is less than 3, then the byte-compiler will optimize away the following
assertions.  Because assertions might be optimized away, it is a bad
idea for them to include side-effects.

 - Special Form: assert test-form [show-args string args...]
     This form verifies that TEST-FORM is true (i.e., evaluates to a
     non-`nil' value).  If so, it returns `nil'.  If the test is not
     satisfied, `assert' signals an error.

     A default error message will be supplied which includes TEST-FORM.
     You can specify a different error message by including a STRING
     argument plus optional extra arguments.  Those arguments are simply
     passed to `error' to signal the error.

     If the optional second argument SHOW-ARGS is `t' instead of `nil',
     then the error message (with or without STRING) will also include
     all non-constant arguments of the top-level FORM.  For example:

          (assert (> x 10) t "x is too small: %d")

     This usage of SHOW-ARGS is a change to Common Lisp.  In true
     Common Lisp, the second argument gives a list of PLACES which can
     be `setf''d by the user before continuing from the error.

 - Special Form: check-type place type &optional string
     This form verifies that PLACE evaluates to a value of type TYPE.
     If so, it returns `nil'.  If not, `check-type' signals a
     continuable `wrong-type-argument' error.  The default error
     message lists the erroneous value along with TYPE and PLACE
     themselves.  If STRING is specified, it is included in the error
     message in place of TYPE.  For example:

          (check-type x (integer 1 *) "a positive integer")

     *Note Type Predicates::, for a description of the type specifiers
     that may be used for TYPE.

     Note that as in Common Lisp, the first argument to `check-type'
     should be a PLACE suitable for use by `setf', because `check-type'
     signals a continuable error that allows the user to modify PLACE,
     most simply by returning a value from the debugger.

  The following error-related macro is also defined:

 - Special Form: ignore-errors forms...
     This executes FORMS exactly like a `progn', except that errors are
     ignored during the FORMS.  More precisely, if an error is
     signalled then `ignore-errors' immediately aborts execution of the
     FORMS and returns `nil'.  If the FORMS complete successfully,
     `ignore-errors' returns the result of the last FORM.


File: cl.info,  Node: Efficiency Concerns,  Next: Common Lisp Compatibility,  Prev: Assertions,  Up: Top

Efficiency Concerns
*******************

Macros
======

Many of the advanced features of this package, such as `defun*',
`loop', and `setf', are implemented as Lisp macros.  In byte-compiled
code, these complex notations will be expanded into equivalent Lisp
code which is simple and efficient.  For example, the forms

     (incf i n)
     (push x (car p))

are expanded at compile-time to the Lisp forms

     (setq i (+ i n))
     (setcar p (cons x (car p)))

which are the most efficient ways of doing these respective operations
in Lisp.  Thus, there is no performance penalty for using the more
readable `incf' and `push' forms in your compiled code.

  _Interpreted_ code, on the other hand, must expand these macros every
time they are executed.  For this reason it is strongly recommended
that code making heavy use of macros be compiled.  (The features
labelled "Special Form" instead of "Function" in this manual are
macros.)  A loop using `incf' a hundred times will execute considerably
faster if compiled, and will also garbage-collect less because the
macro expansion will not have to be generated, used, and thrown away a
hundred times.

  You can find out how a macro expands by using the `cl-prettyexpand'
function.

 - Function: cl-prettyexpand form &optional full
     This function takes a single Lisp form as an argument and inserts
     a nicely formatted copy of it in the current buffer (which must be
     in Lisp mode so that indentation works properly).  It also expands
     all Lisp macros which appear in the form.  The easiest way to use
     this function is to go to the `*scratch*' buffer and type, say,

          (cl-prettyexpand '(loop for x below 10 collect x))

     and type `C-x C-e' immediately after the closing parenthesis; the
     expansion

          (block nil
            (let* ((x 0)
                   (G1004 nil))
              (while (< x 10)
                (setq G1004 (cons x G1004))
                (setq x (+ x 1)))
              (nreverse G1004)))

     will be inserted into the buffer.  (The `block' macro is expanded
     differently in the interpreter and compiler, so `cl-prettyexpand'
     just leaves it alone.  The temporary variable `G1004' was created
     by `gensym'.)

     If the optional argument FULL is true, then _all_ macros are
     expanded, including `block', `eval-when', and compiler macros.
     Expansion is done as if FORM were a top-level form in a file being
     compiled.  For example,

          (cl-prettyexpand '(pushnew 'x list))
               -| (setq list (adjoin 'x list))
          (cl-prettyexpand '(pushnew 'x list) t)
               -| (setq list (if (memq 'x list) list (cons 'x list)))
          (cl-prettyexpand '(caddr (member* 'a list)) t)
               -| (car (cdr (cdr (memq 'a list))))

     Note that `adjoin', `caddr', and `member*' all have built-in
     compiler macros to optimize them in common cases.


Error Checking
==============

Common Lisp compliance has in general not been sacrificed for the sake
of efficiency.  A few exceptions have been made for cases where
substantial gains were possible at the expense of marginal
incompatibility.  One example is the use of `memq' (which is treated
very efficiently by the byte-compiler) to scan for keyword arguments;
this can become confused in rare cases when keyword symbols are used as
both keywords and data values at once.  This is extremely unlikely to
occur in practical code, and the use of `memq' allows functions with
keyword arguments to be nearly as fast as functions that use
`&optional' arguments.

  The Common Lisp standard (as embodied in Steele's book) uses the
phrase "it is an error if" to indicate a situation which is not
supposed to arise in complying programs; implementations are strongly
encouraged but not required to signal an error in these situations.
This package sometimes omits such error checking in the interest of
compactness and efficiency.  For example, `do' variable specifiers are
supposed to be lists of one, two, or three forms; extra forms are
ignored by this package rather than signalling a syntax error.  The
`endp' function is simply a synonym for `null' in this package.
Functions taking keyword arguments will accept an odd number of
arguments, treating the trailing keyword as if it were followed by the
value `nil'.

  Argument lists (as processed by `defun*' and friends) _are_ checked
rigorously except for the minor point just mentioned; in particular,
keyword arguments are checked for validity, and `&allow-other-keys' and
`:allow-other-keys' are fully implemented.  Keyword validity checking
is slightly time consuming (though not too bad in byte-compiled code);
you can use `&allow-other-keys' to omit this check.  Functions defined
in this package such as `find' and `member*' do check their keyword
arguments for validity.


Optimizing Compiler
===================

The byte-compiler that comes with Emacs 18 normally fails to expand
macros that appear in top-level positions in the file (i.e., outside of
`defun's or other enclosing forms).  This would have disastrous
consequences to programs that used such top-level macros as `defun*',
`eval-when', and `defstruct'.  To work around this problem, the "CL"
package patches the Emacs 18 compiler to expand top-level macros.  This
patch will apply to your own macros, too, if they are used in a
top-level context.  The patch will not harm versions of the Emacs 18
compiler which have already had a similar patch applied, nor will it
affect the optimizing Emacs 19 byte-compiler written by Jamie Zawinski
and Hallvard Furuseth.  The patch is applied to the byte compiler's
code in Emacs' memory, _not_ to the `bytecomp.elc' file stored on disk.

  The Emacs 19 compiler (for Emacs 18) is available from various Emacs
Lisp archive sites such as `archive.cis.ohio-state.edu'.  Its use is
highly recommended; many of the Common Lisp macros emit code which can
be improved by optimization.  In particular, `block's (whether explicit
or implicit in constructs like `defun*' and `loop') carry a fair
run-time penalty; the optimizing compiler removes `block's which are
not actually referenced by `return' or `return-from' inside the block.


File: cl.info,  Node: Common Lisp Compatibility,  Next: Old CL Compatibility,  Prev: Efficiency Concerns,  Up: Top

Common Lisp Compatibility
*************************

Following is a list of all known incompatibilities between this package
and Common Lisp as documented in Steele (2nd edition).

  Certain function names, such as `member', `assoc', and `floor', were
already taken by (incompatible) Emacs Lisp functions; this package
appends `*' to the names of its Common Lisp versions of these functions.

  The word `defun*' is required instead of `defun' in order to use
extended Common Lisp argument lists in a function.  Likewise,
`defmacro*' and `function*' are versions of those forms which
understand full-featured argument lists.  The `&whole' keyword does not
work in `defmacro' argument lists (except inside recursive argument
lists).

  In order to allow an efficient implementation, keyword arguments use
a slightly cheesy parser which may be confused if a keyword symbol is
passed as the _value_ of another keyword argument.  (Specifically,
`(memq :KEYWORD REST-OF-ARGUMENTS)' is used to scan for `:KEYWORD'
among the supplied keyword arguments.)

  The `eql' and `equal' predicates do not distinguish between IEEE
floating-point plus and minus zero.  The `equalp' predicate has several
differences with Common Lisp; *note Predicates::.

  The `setf' mechanism is entirely compatible, except that setf-methods
return a list of five values rather than five values directly.  Also,
the new "`setf' function" concept (typified by `(defun (setf foo)
...)') is not implemented.

  The `do-all-symbols' form is the same as `do-symbols' with no OBARRAY
argument.  In Common Lisp, this form would iterate over all symbols in
all packages.  Since Emacs obarrays are not a first-class package
mechanism, there is no way for `do-all-symbols' to locate any but the
default obarray.

  The `loop' macro is complete except that `loop-finish' and type
specifiers are unimplemented.

  The multiple-value return facility treats lists as multiple values,
since Emacs Lisp cannot support multiple return values directly.  The
macros will be compatible with Common Lisp if `values' or `values-list'
is always used to return to a `multiple-value-bind' or other
multiple-value receiver; if `values' is used without
`multiple-value-...' or vice-versa the effect will be different from
Common Lisp.

  Many Common Lisp declarations are ignored, and others match the
Common Lisp standard in concept but not in detail.  For example, local
`special' declarations, which are purely advisory in Emacs Lisp, do not
rigorously obey the scoping rules set down in Steele's book.

  The variable `*gensym-counter*' starts out with a pseudo-random value
rather than with zero.  This is to cope with the fact that generated
symbols become interned when they are written to and loaded back from a
file.

  The `defstruct' facility is compatible, except that structures are of
type `:type vector :named' by default rather than some special,
distinct type.  Also, the `:type' slot option is ignored.

  The second argument of `check-type' is treated differently.


File: cl.info,  Node: Old CL Compatibility,  Next: Porting Common Lisp,  Prev: Common Lisp Compatibility,  Up: Top

Old CL Compatibility
********************

Following is a list of all known incompatibilities between this package
and the older Quiroz `cl.el' package.

  This package's emulation of multiple return values in functions is
incompatible with that of the older package.  That package attempted to
come as close as possible to true Common Lisp multiple return values;
unfortunately, it could not be 100% reliable and so was prone to
occasional surprises if used freely.  This package uses a simpler
method, namely replacing multiple values with lists of values, which is
more predictable though more noticeably different from Common Lisp.

  The `defkeyword' form and `keywordp' function are not implemented in
this package.

  The `member', `floor', `ceiling', `truncate', `round', `mod', and
`rem' functions are suffixed by `*' in this package to avoid collision
with existing functions in Emacs 18 or Emacs 19.  The older package
simply redefined these functions, overwriting the built-in meanings and
causing serious portability problems with Emacs 19.  (Some more recent
versions of the Quiroz package changed the names to `cl-member', etc.;
this package defines the latter names as aliases for `member*', etc.)

  Certain functions in the old package which were buggy or inconsistent
with the Common Lisp standard are incompatible with the conforming
versions in this package.  For example, `eql' and `member' were
synonyms for `eq' and `memq' in that package, `setf' failed to preserve
correct order of evaluation of its arguments, etc.

  Finally, unlike the older package, this package is careful to prefix
all of its internal names with `cl-'.  Except for a few functions which
are explicitly defined as additional features (such as `floatp-safe'
and `letf'), this package does not export any non-`cl-' symbols which
are not also part of Common Lisp.


The `cl-compat' package
=======================

The "CL" package includes emulations of some features of the old
`cl.el', in the form of a compatibility package `cl-compat'.  To use
it, put `(require 'cl-compat)' in your program.

  The old package defined a number of internal routines without `cl-'
prefixes or other annotations.  Call to these routines may have crept
into existing Lisp code.  `cl-compat' provides emulations of the
following internal routines: `pair-with-newsyms', `zip-lists',
`unzip-lists', `reassemble-arglists', `duplicate-symbols-p',
`safe-idiv'.

  Some `setf' forms translated into calls to internal functions that
user code might call directly.  The functions `setnth', `setnthcdr',
and `setelt' fall in this category; they are defined by `cl-compat',
but the best fix is to change to use `setf' properly.

  The `cl-compat' file defines the keyword functions `keywordp',
`keyword-of', and `defkeyword', which are not defined by the new "CL"
package because the use of keywords as data is discouraged.

  The `build-klist' mechanism for parsing keyword arguments is emulated
by `cl-compat'; the `with-keyword-args' macro is not, however, and in
any case it's best to change to use the more natural keyword argument
processing offered by `defun*'.

  Multiple return values are treated differently by the two Common Lisp
packages.  The old package's method was more compatible with true
Common Lisp, though it used heuristics that caused it to report
spurious multiple return values in certain cases.  The `cl-compat'
package defines a set of multiple-value macros that are compatible with
the old CL package; again, they are heuristic in nature, but they are
guaranteed to work in any case where the old package's macros worked.
To avoid name collision with the "official" multiple-value facilities,
the ones in `cl-compat' have capitalized names:  `Values',
`Values-list', `Multiple-value-bind', etc.

  The functions `cl-floor', `cl-ceiling', `cl-truncate', and `cl-round'
are defined by `cl-compat' to use the old-style multiple-value
mechanism, just as they did in the old package.  The newer `floor*' and
friends return their two results in a list rather than as multiple
values.  Note that older versions of the old package used the unadorned
names `floor', `ceiling', etc.; `cl-compat' cannot use these names
because they conflict with Emacs 19 built-ins.


File: cl.info,  Node: Porting Common Lisp,  Next: Function Index,  Prev: Old CL Compatibility,  Up: Top

Porting Common Lisp
*******************

This package is meant to be used as an extension to Emacs Lisp, not as
an Emacs implementation of true Common Lisp.  Some of the remaining
differences between Emacs Lisp and Common Lisp make it difficult to
port large Common Lisp applications to Emacs.  For one, some of the
features in this package are not fully compliant with ANSI or Steele;
*note Common Lisp Compatibility::.  But there are also quite a few
features that this package does not provide at all.  Here are some
major omissions that you will want watch out for when bringing Common
Lisp code into Emacs.

   * Case-insensitivity.  Symbols in Common Lisp are case-insensitive
     by default.  Some programs refer to a function or variable as
     `foo' in one place and `Foo' or `FOO' in another.  Emacs Lisp will
     treat these as three distinct symbols.

     Some Common Lisp code is written in all upper-case.  While Emacs
     is happy to let the program's own functions and variables use this
     convention, calls to Lisp builtins like `if' and `defun' will have
     to be changed to lower-case.

   * Lexical scoping.  In Common Lisp, function arguments and `let'
     bindings apply only to references physically within their bodies
     (or within macro expansions in their bodies).  Emacs Lisp, by
     contrast, uses "dynamic scoping" wherein a binding to a variable
     is visible even inside functions called from the body.

     Variables in Common Lisp can be made dynamically scoped by
     declaring them `special' or using `defvar'.  In Emacs Lisp it is
     as if all variables were declared `special'.

     Often you can use code that was written for lexical scoping even
     in a dynamically scoped Lisp, but not always.  Here is an example
     of a Common Lisp code fragment that would fail in Emacs Lisp:

          (defun map-odd-elements (func list)
            (loop for x in list
                  for flag = t then (not flag)
                  collect (if flag x (funcall func x))))
          
          (defun add-odd-elements (list x)
            (map-odd-elements (function (lambda (a) (+ a x))) list))

     In Common Lisp, the two functions' usages of `x' are completely
     independent.  In Emacs Lisp, the binding to `x' made by
     `add-odd-elements' will have been hidden by the binding in
     `map-odd-elements' by the time the `(+ a x)' function is called.

     (This package avoids such problems in its own mapping functions by
     using names like `cl-x' instead of `x' internally; as long as you
     don't use the `cl-' prefix for your own variables no collision can
     occur.)

     *Note Lexical Bindings::, for a description of the `lexical-let'
     form which establishes a Common Lisp-style lexical binding, and
     some examples of how it differs from Emacs' regular `let'.

   * Common Lisp allows the shorthand `#'x' to stand for `(function
     x)', just as `'x' stands for `(quote x)'.  In Common Lisp, one
     traditionally uses `#'' notation when referring to the name of a
     function.  In Emacs Lisp, it works just as well to use a regular
     quote:

          (loop for x in y by #'cddr collect (mapcar #'plusp x)) ; Common Lisp
          (loop for x in y by 'cddr collect (mapcar 'plusp x))   ; Emacs Lisp

     When `#'' introduces a `lambda' form, it is best to write out
     `(function ...)' longhand in Emacs Lisp.  You can use a regular
     quote, but then the byte-compiler won't know that the `lambda'
     expression is code that can be compiled.

          (mapcar #'(lambda (x) (* x 2)) list)            ; Common Lisp
          (mapcar (function (lambda (x) (* x 2))) list)   ; Emacs Lisp

     XEmacs supports `#'' notation starting with version 19.8.

   * Reader macros.  Common Lisp includes a second type of macro that
     works at the level of individual characters.  For example, Common
     Lisp implements the quote notation by a reader macro called `'',
     whereas Emacs Lisp's parser just treats quote as a special case.
     Some Lisp packages use reader macros to create special syntaxes
     for themselves, which the Emacs parser is incapable of reading.

   * Other syntactic features.  Common Lisp provides a number of
     notations beginning with `#' that the Emacs Lisp parser won't
     understand.  For example, `#| ... |#' is an alternate comment
     notation, and `#+lucid (foo)' tells the parser to ignore the
     `(foo)' except in Lucid Common Lisp.

     The number prefixes `#b', `#o', and `#x', however, are supported
     by the Emacs Lisp parser to represent numbers in binary, octal,
     and hexadecimal notation (or radix), just like in Common Lisp.

   * Packages.  In Common Lisp, symbols are divided into "packages".
     Symbols that are Lisp built-ins are typically stored in one
     package; symbols that are vendor extensions are put in another,
     and each application program would have a package for its own
     symbols.  Certain symbols are "exported" by a package and others
     are internal; certain packages "use" or import the exported symbols
     of other packages.  To access symbols that would not normally be
     visible due to this importing and exporting, Common Lisp provides
     a syntax like `package:symbol' or `package::symbol'.

     Emacs Lisp has a single namespace for all interned symbols, and
     then uses a naming convention of putting a prefix like `cl-' in
     front of the name.  Some Emacs packages adopt the Common Lisp-like
     convention of using `cl:' or `cl::' as the prefix.  However, the
     Emacs parser does not understand colons and just treats them as
     part of the symbol name.  Thus, while `mapcar' and `lisp:mapcar'
     may refer to the same symbol in Common Lisp, they are totally
     distinct in Emacs Lisp.  Common Lisp programs which refer to a
     symbol by the full name sometimes and the short name other times
     will not port cleanly to Emacs.

     Emacs Lisp does have a concept of "obarrays," which are
     package-like collections of symbols, but this feature is not
     strong enough to be used as a true package mechanism.

   * Keywords.  The notation `:test-not' in Common Lisp really is a
     shorthand for `keyword:test-not'; keywords are just symbols in a
     built-in `keyword' package with the special property that all its
     symbols are automatically self-evaluating.  Common Lisp programs
     often use keywords liberally to avoid having to use quotes.

     In Emacs Lisp a keyword is just a symbol whose name begins with a
     colon; since the Emacs parser does not treat them specially, they
     have to be explicitly made self-evaluating by a statement like
     `(setq :test-not ':test-not)'.  This package arranges to execute
     such a statement whenever `defun*' or some other form sees a
     keyword being used as an argument.  Common Lisp code that assumes
     that a symbol `:mumble' will be self-evaluating even though it was
     never introduced by a `defun*' will have to be fixed.

   * The `format' function is quite different between Common Lisp and
     Emacs Lisp.  It takes an additional "destination" argument before
     the format string.  A destination of `nil' means to format to a
     string as in Emacs Lisp; a destination of `t' means to write to
     the terminal (similar to `message' in Emacs).  Also, format
     control strings are utterly different; `~' is used instead of `%'
     to introduce format codes, and the set of available codes is much
     richer.  There are no notations like `\n' for string literals;
     instead, `format' is used with the "newline" format code, `~%'.
     More advanced formatting codes provide such features as paragraph
     filling, case conversion, and even loops and conditionals.

     While it would have been possible to implement most of Common Lisp
     `format' in this package (under the name `format*', of course), it
     was not deemed worthwhile.  It would have required a huge amount
     of code to implement even a decent subset of `format*', yet the
     functionality it would provide over Emacs Lisp's `format' would
     rarely be useful.

   * Vector constants use square brackets in Emacs Lisp, but `#(a b c)'
     notation in Common Lisp.  To further complicate matters, Emacs 19
     introduces its own `#(' notation for something entirely
     different--strings with properties.

   * Characters are distinct from integers in Common Lisp.  The
     notation for character constants is also different:  `#\A' instead
     of `?A'.  Also, `string=' and `string-equal' are synonyms in Emacs
     Lisp whereas the latter is case-insensitive in Common Lisp.

   * Data types.  Some Common Lisp data types do not exist in Emacs
     Lisp.  Rational numbers and complex numbers are not present, nor
     are large integers (all integers are "fixnums").  All arrays are
     one-dimensional.  There are no readtables or pathnames; streams
     are a set of existing data types rather than a new data type of
     their own.  Hash tables, random-states, structures, and packages
     (obarrays) are built from Lisp vectors or lists rather than being
     distinct types.

   * The Common Lisp Object System (CLOS) is not implemented, nor is
     the Common Lisp Condition System.

   * Common Lisp features that are completely redundant with Emacs Lisp
     features of a different name generally have not been implemented.
     For example, Common Lisp writes `defconstant' where Emacs Lisp
     uses `defconst'.  Similarly, `make-list' takes its arguments in
     different ways in the two Lisps but does exactly the same thing,
     so this package has not bothered to implement a Common Lisp-style
     `make-list'.

   * A few more notable Common Lisp features not included in this
     package:  `compiler-let', `tagbody', `prog', `ldb/dpb',
     `parse-integer', `cerror'.

   * Recursion.  While recursion works in Emacs Lisp just like it does
     in Common Lisp, various details of the Emacs Lisp system and
     compiler make recursion much less efficient than it is in most
     Lisps.  Some schools of thought prefer to use recursion in Lisp
     over other techniques; they would sum a list of numbers using
     something like

          (defun sum-list (list)
            (if list
                (+ (car list) (sum-list (cdr list)))
              0))

     where a more iteratively-minded programmer might write one of
     these forms:

          (let ((total 0)) (dolist (x my-list) (incf total x)) total)
          (loop for x in my-list sum x)

     While this would be mainly a stylistic choice in most Common Lisps,
     in Emacs Lisp you should be aware that the iterative forms are
     much faster than recursion.  Also, Lisp programmers will want to
     note that the current Emacs Lisp compiler does not optimize tail
     recursion.


File: cl.info,  Node: Function Index,  Next: Variable Index,  Prev: Porting Common Lisp,  Up: Top

Function Index
**************

* Menu:

* abs:                                   Numerical Functions.
* acons:                                 Association Lists.
* adjoin:                                Lists as Sets.
* assert:                                Assertions.
* assoc*:                                Association Lists.
* assoc-if:                              Association Lists.
* assoc-if-not:                          Association Lists.
* block:                                 Blocks and Exits.
* butlast:                               List Functions.
* caddr:                                 List Functions.
* callf:                                 Modify Macros.
* callf2:                                Modify Macros.
* case:                                  Conditionals.
* ceiling*:                              Numerical Functions.
* check-type:                            Assertions.
* cl-float-limits:                       Implementation Parameters.
* cl-prettyexpand:                       Efficiency Concerns.
* coerce:                                Type Predicates.
* compiler-macroexpand:                  Macros.
* concatenate:                           Sequence Functions.
* copy-list:                             List Functions.
* copy-tree:                             List Functions.
* count:                                 Searching Sequences.
* count-if:                              Searching Sequences.
* count-if-not:                          Searching Sequences.
* decf:                                  Modify Macros.
* declaim:                               Declarations.
* declare:                               Declarations.
* defalias:                              Function Aliases.
* define-compiler-macro:                 Macros.
* define-modify-macro:                   Customizing Setf.
* define-setf-method:                    Customizing Setf.
* defmacro*:                             Argument Lists.
* defsetf:                               Customizing Setf.
* defstruct:                             Structures.
* defsubst*:                             Argument Lists.
* deftype:                               Type Predicates.
* defun*:                                Argument Lists.
* delete:                                Sequence Functions.
* delete*:                               Sequence Functions.
* delete-duplicates:                     Sequence Functions.
* delete-if:                             Sequence Functions.
* delete-if-not:                         Sequence Functions.
* destructuring-bind:                    Macros.
* do:                                    Iteration.
* do*:                                   Iteration.
* do-all-symbols:                        Iteration.
* do-symbols:                            Iteration.
* dolist:                                Iteration.
* dotimes:                               Iteration.
* ecase:                                 Conditionals.
* endp:                                  List Functions.
* eql:                                   Equality Predicates.
* equalp:                                Equality Predicates.
* etypecase:                             Conditionals.
* eval-when:                             Time of Evaluation.
* eval-when-compile:                     Time of Evaluation.
* evenp:                                 Predicates on Numbers.
* every:                                 Mapping over Sequences.
* expt:                                  Numerical Functions.
* fill:                                  Sequence Functions.
* find:                                  Searching Sequences.
* find-if:                               Searching Sequences.
* find-if-not:                           Searching Sequences.
* first:                                 List Functions.
* flet:                                  Function Bindings.
* floatp-safe:                           Predicates on Numbers.
* floor*:                                Numerical Functions.
* function*:                             Argument Lists.
* gcd:                                   Numerical Functions.
* gensym:                                Creating Symbols.
* gentemp:                               Creating Symbols.
* get-setf-method:                       Customizing Setf.
* getf:                                  Property Lists.
* ignore-errors:                         Assertions.
* incf:                                  Modify Macros.
* intersection:                          Lists as Sets.
* isqrt:                                 Numerical Functions.
* labels:                                Function Bindings.
* last:                                  List Functions.
* lcm:                                   Numerical Functions.
* ldiff:                                 List Functions.
* letf:                                  Modify Macros.
* letf*:                                 Modify Macros.
* lexical-let:                           Lexical Bindings.
* lexical-let*:                          Lexical Bindings.
* list*:                                 List Functions.
* list-length:                           List Functions.
* load-time-value:                       Time of Evaluation.
* locally:                               Declarations.
* loop <1>:                              Iteration.
* loop:                                  Loop Basics.
* macrolet:                              Macro Bindings.
* make-random-state:                     Random Numbers.
* map:                                   Mapping over Sequences.
* mapc:                                  Mapping over Sequences.
* mapcan:                                Mapping over Sequences.
* mapcar*:                               Mapping over Sequences.
* mapcon:                                Mapping over Sequences.
* mapl:                                  Mapping over Sequences.
* maplist:                               Mapping over Sequences.
* member:                                Lists as Sets.
* member*:                               Lists as Sets.
* member-if:                             Lists as Sets.
* member-if-not:                         Lists as Sets.
* merge:                                 Sorting Sequences.
* minusp:                                Predicates on Numbers.
* mismatch:                              Searching Sequences.
* mod*:                                  Numerical Functions.
* multiple-value-bind:                   Multiple Values.
* multiple-value-setq:                   Multiple Values.
* nbutlast:                              List Functions.
* nintersection:                         Lists as Sets.
* notany:                                Mapping over Sequences.
* notevery:                              Mapping over Sequences.
* nset-difference:                       Lists as Sets.
* nset-exclusive-or:                     Lists as Sets.
* nsublis:                               Substitution of Expressions.
* nsubst:                                Substitution of Expressions.
* nsubst-if:                             Substitution of Expressions.
* nsubst-if-not:                         Substitution of Expressions.
* nsubstitute:                           Sequence Functions.
* nsubstitute-if:                        Sequence Functions.
* nsubstitute-if-not:                    Sequence Functions.
* nunion:                                Lists as Sets.
* oddp:                                  Predicates on Numbers.
* pairlis:                               Association Lists.
* plusp:                                 Predicates on Numbers.
* pop:                                   Modify Macros.
* position:                              Searching Sequences.
* position-if:                           Searching Sequences.
* position-if-not:                       Searching Sequences.
* proclaim:                              Declarations.
* progv:                                 Dynamic Bindings.
* psetf:                                 Modify Macros.
* psetq:                                 Assignment.
* push:                                  Modify Macros.
* pushnew:                               Modify Macros.
* random*:                               Random Numbers.
* random-state-p:                        Random Numbers.
* rassoc:                                Association Lists.
* rassoc*:                               Association Lists.
* rassoc-if:                             Association Lists.
* rassoc-if-not:                         Association Lists.
* reduce:                                Mapping over Sequences.
* rem*:                                  Numerical Functions.
* remf:                                  Property Lists.
* remove:                                Sequence Functions.
* remove*:                               Sequence Functions.
* remove-duplicates:                     Sequence Functions.
* remove-if:                             Sequence Functions.
* remove-if-not:                         Sequence Functions.
* remq:                                  Sequence Functions.
* replace:                               Sequence Functions.
* rest:                                  List Functions.
* return:                                Blocks and Exits.
* return-from:                           Blocks and Exits.
* rotatef:                               Modify Macros.
* round*:                                Numerical Functions.
* search:                                Searching Sequences.
* set-difference:                        Lists as Sets.
* set-exclusive-or:                      Lists as Sets.
* setf:                                  Basic Setf.
* shiftf:                                Modify Macros.
* some:                                  Mapping over Sequences.
* sort*:                                 Sorting Sequences.
* stable-sort:                           Sorting Sequences.
* sublis:                                Substitution of Expressions.
* subseq:                                Sequence Functions.
* subsetp:                               Lists as Sets.
* subst:                                 Substitution of Expressions.
* subst-if:                              Substitution of Expressions.
* subst-if-not:                          Substitution of Expressions.
* substitute:                            Sequence Functions.
* substitute-if:                         Sequence Functions.
* substitute-if-not:                     Sequence Functions.
* symbol-macrolet:                       Macro Bindings.
* tailp:                                 Lists as Sets.
* the:                                   Declarations.
* tree-equal:                            List Functions.
* truncate*:                             Numerical Functions.
* typecase:                              Conditionals.
* typep:                                 Type Predicates.
* union:                                 Lists as Sets.
* unless:                                Conditionals.
* when:                                  Conditionals.


File: cl.info,  Node: Variable Index,  Prev: Function Index,  Up: Top

Variable Index
**************

* Menu:

* *gensym-counter*:                      Creating Symbols.
* *random-state*:                        Random Numbers.
* float-epsilon:                         Implementation Parameters.
* float-negative-epsilon:                Implementation Parameters.
* least-negative-float:                  Implementation Parameters.
* least-negative-normalized-float:       Implementation Parameters.
* least-positive-float:                  Implementation Parameters.
* least-positive-normalized-float:       Implementation Parameters.
* most-negative-fixnum:                  Implementation Parameters.
* most-negative-float:                   Implementation Parameters.
* most-positive-fixnum:                  Implementation Parameters.
* most-positive-float:                   Implementation Parameters.



Tag Table:
Node: Top1145
Node: Overview2697
Node: Usage4973
Node: Organization5622
Node: Installation7443
Node: Naming Conventions8592
Node: Program Structure10716
Node: Argument Lists11184
Node: Time of Evaluation20950
Node: Function Aliases26928
Node: Predicates27512
Node: Type Predicates27832
Node: Equality Predicates32871
Node: Control Structure35646
Node: Assignment36450
Node: Generalized Variables37691
Node: Basic Setf38996
Node: Modify Macros46248
Node: Customizing Setf53455
Node: Variable Bindings60743
Node: Dynamic Bindings61323
Node: Lexical Bindings62213
Node: Function Bindings66317
Node: Macro Bindings68704
Node: Conditionals71627
Node: Blocks and Exits74710
Node: Iteration77766
Node: Loop Facility83238
Node: Loop Basics84164
Node: Loop Examples86762
Node: For Clauses89020
Node: Iteration Clauses100892
Node: Accumulation Clauses102733
Node: Other Clauses105075
Node: Multiple Values111142
Node: Macros113033
Node: Declarations116248
Node: Symbols124732
Node: Property Lists125013
Node: Creating Symbols127204
Node: Numbers129281
Node: Predicates on Numbers129761
Node: Numerical Functions130790
Node: Random Numbers135016
Node: Implementation Parameters137725
Node: Sequences141295
Node: Sequence Basics141968
Node: Mapping over Sequences145539
Node: Sequence Functions151392
Node: Searching Sequences157565
Node: Sorting Sequences160601
Node: Lists163149
Node: List Functions163574
Node: Substitution of Expressions167837
Node: Lists as Sets169722
Node: Association Lists173783
Node: Hash Tables175484
Node: Structures175704
Node: Assertions190485
Node: Efficiency Concerns193406
Node: Common Lisp Compatibility199728
Node: Old CL Compatibility202872
Node: Porting Common Lisp207244
Node: Function Index218255
Node: Variable Index229404

End Tag Table
