Re: Generating a listing of all symbols (16K+) and labeling subsets

[Hans BKK <hansbkk@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 4:47 PM, Nicolas Richard wrote:
> Hans BKK writes:
>> On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 11:27 AM, Nicolas Richard
>>> Some symbols are just symbols. every time the lisp reader reads
>>> something, symbols are interned.
>>>
>>> Currently I have 76920 symbols in obarray.
>>
>> Aha. OK, so those "just symbols" can go to dev null.
>
> I don't know what that should mean.

I meant that after my code selects for display those symbols likely to
be of interest, I can leave the final "(t" case to simply not list
those likely to be irrelevant to my purpose.

> ;; the intersecton of the two previous sets:
> (yf/count-symbols (lambda (x) (and (fboundp x) (boundp x))))
> => 792

> (there's obviously some overlapping with bound and fbound symbols)

Yes, I'm testing for function first as I consider that primary.
Strange (to me) that such a high % of functions have no associated
value.


> FWIW, here's the yf/count-symbols that I used:
> (defun yf/count-symbols (&optional predicate)
>   (let ((count 0))
>     (mapatoms
>      (lambda (x)
>        (when (or (not predicate)
>                  (funcall predicate x))
>          (incf count))))
>     count))

cool - thanks

>> Question remains - how to separate out and ID - in the absence of a
>> predicate - any that actually may be of interest remaining in my
>> current "other" - which I presume macros should be, and having got
>> code for keymaps already above.
>
> macros are fboundp.
> (defmacro asymbollikenoother () t)
> (fboundp 'asymbollikenoother)

yes, but I'm looking for a way to ID them specifically within the
fbound cond rather than having them lumped in with the final (t
"other" grouping:

(cond
           ((fboundp sym)                  ; ALL functions
            (cond
             ((commandp sym)
              (cond
               ((keymapp sym)
                (princ "=======\n")
                (princ "\n")
                (princ "command - keymap:\t\t\t\t\t")
                (prin1 sym)
                (princ "\n\n"))
               ((subrp (symbol-function sym))
                (princ "=============================\n")
                (princ "command - built-in primitive:\t\t")
                (prin1 sym)
                (princ "\n\n"))
               ((byte-code-function-p (symbol-function sym))
                (princ "====================\n")
                (princ "command - byte-code:\t\t\t")
                (prin1 sym)
                (princ "\n\n"))
               ((functionp sym)
                (princ "================\n")
                (princ "command - elisp:\t\t\t")
                (prin1 sym)
                (princ "\n\n"))
               (t
                (princ "===============\n")
                (princ "other command:\t\t\t\t")
                (prin1 sym)
                (princ "\n\n"))
               )
             )
             (t                            ; (non-command) functions
              (cond
               ((keymapp sym)
                (princ "==================\n")
                (princ "\n")
                (princ "function - keymap:\t\t\t\t")
                (prin1 sym)
                (princ "\n\n"))
               ((subrp (symbol-function sym))
                (princ "==============================\n")
                (princ "function - built-in primitive:\t\t")
                (prin1 sym)
                (princ "\n\n"))
               ((byte-code-function-p (symbol-function sym))
                (princ "=====================\n")
                (princ "function - byte-code:\t\t\t")
                (prin1 sym)
                (princ "\n\n"))
               ((functionp sym)
                (princ "=================\n")
                (princ "function - elisp:\t\t\t")
                (prin1 sym)
                (princ "\n\n"))
               (t
                (princ "=============================\n")
               (princ "other ~function (macros +??):\t")
                (prin1 sym)
                (princ "\n\n"))
               )

>> Thanks for that, looks useful. But looks to only pick up those
>> starting with the package string?
>
> That was the idea, yes. Most packages are namespaced that way, those
> that aren't probably should not exist in an ideal world ;)

I wish we lived in such a place 8-)

>> And I think apropos only displays a
>> limited subset, e.g. only Customized variables? and/or only those with
>> docstrings?
>
> C-h f a p r o p o s RET
> =>
> Show all meaningful Lisp symbols whose names match PATTERN.
> Symbols are shown if they are defined as functions, variables, or
> faces, or if they have nonempty property lists.

Note that in any given state,
(apropos-variable "." t)
shows much fewer results than the auto-completion listing from
M-x describe-variable

Since I'm only looking at the diff, the changes made by activating a
given feature or package, it doesn't matter if there's a lot of
less-meaningful kruft as long as it's kruft that doesn't change.