[pro] DEFVARs combined service

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

Kazimir Majorinc <kazimir at chem.pmf.hr>
writes:

> "DEFVAR and DEFPARAMETER do the combined service of
>
>   - in some implementations, recording the "definitional home" of the 
> variable
>   - declaring the indicated variable special in compiler and runtime
>   - assigning the variable (either conditionally, as in DEFVAR, which 
> assigns only in the case that the variable is unbound, or 
> unconditionally, as in  DEFPARAMETER). "
>
> K. Pitman, comp.lang.lisp, 26. April 2001.
>
> Why "in some  implementations?"

Because this is something that is just not specified.

> What "recording the definitional home" means? 

It's recording that the variable is defined in that file, at that
position, so that you the "IDE" may jump to the definition of the
variable to inspect it or modify it.

There's an additionnal service that's specified:

- record the variable documentation for that symbol.

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__                     http://www.informatimago.com/
A bad day in () is better than a good day in {}.