[slime-devel] Find Definitions

[Helmut Eller]

* Terje Norderhaug [2009-12-18 20:32+0100] writes:

[...]
> Of particular concern is the DSPEC, which Clozure returns as "#'SWANK- 
> BACKEND:FIND-DEFINITIONS" and LispWorks returns as "(DEFUN SWANK- 
> BACKEND:FIND-DEFINITIONS)". It would be helpful if the DSPEC  
> standardized on the same symbol to denote that the definition is for  
> a function, as in (FUNCTION SWANK-BACKEND:FIND-DEFINITIONS).
>
> To facilitate client side use and flexibility in presentation, I also  
> suggest that the DSPEC is returned as a list instead of as a string,  
> with the type as a symbol and the function name encoded as a string,  
> as in (FUNCTION "SWANK-BACKEND:FIND-DEFINITIONS").

Assigning a standard meaning would be pretty difficult as
implementations differ considerably in this area.  E.g Allegro has
fspecs while Lispworks has dspecs. Fspecs are for functions only but
dspecs are indented for all kinds of definitions and new dspecs can be
added by users.  It's much simpler to treat dspecs as strings and just
display them as label.

Helmut