Manual for `cl' package is out of date

Manual for `cl' package is out of date

[Gareth Rees]

The manual for the `cl' package is out of date in a couple places.

Node "(cl)Porting Common Lisp" says:

   * 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.

     The lack of reader macros, incidentally, is the reason behind
     Emacs Lisp's unusual backquote syntax.  Since backquotes are
     implemented as a Lisp package and not built-in to the Emacs
     parser, they are forced to use a regular macro named ``' which is
     used with the standard function/macro call notation.

This has become a bit misleading: it's still true that Emacs Lisp lacks
reader macros but Emacs Lisp's backquote syntax is no longer "unusual"
because backquote is now handled in the reader.  Maybe just delete the
second paragraph?

Further down in "(cl)Porting Common Lisp":

   * Characters are distinct from integers in Common Lisp.  The
     notation for character constants is also different:  `#\A' instead
     of `?A'.

`?A' is now supported in Emacs.

Node "(cl)Top" offers this menu item:

   * Lists::                `cadr', `sublis', `member*', `assoc*', etc.

The function `cadr' is no longer described in this node.  The menu item
should mention `caddr' instead.

-- 
Gareth Rees

Re: Manual for `cl' package is out of date

[Andreas Schwab]

Gareth Rees <gareth.rees@pobox.com> writes:

> Further down in "(cl)Porting Common Lisp":
>
>   * Characters are distinct from integers in Common Lisp.  The
>     notation for character constants is also different:  `#\A' instead
>     of `?A'.
>
> `?A' is now supported in Emacs.

I think you misunderstood: ?A has always been the syntax for character
constants as used by Emacs.  The notation used by Common Lisp is #\A,
which is _not_ supported.

Andreas.

-- 
Andreas Schwab, SuSE Labs, schwab@suse.de
SuSE Linux Products GmbH, Maxfeldstraße 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany
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"And now for something completely different."

Re: Manual for `cl' package is out of date

[Gareth Rees]

On 2007-10-23, at 13:41, Andreas Schwab wrote:
> I think you misunderstood: ?A has always been the syntax for character
> constants as used by Emacs.  The notation used by Common Lisp is #\A,
> which is _not_ supported.

Yes, I read it completely backwards. My apologies.

-- 
Gareth Rees