Is there lisp help in the general form, for example (? CommandName)

Question

I am learning lisp and I was wondering if there are any built-in help commands - that is: return help on a topic or command - for example (defun /?)

thanks

Answer 1

The standard describe function can provide some information about objects in a specific way, for example.

 * (describe 'defun) COMMON-LISP:DEFUN [symbol] DEFUN names a macro: Lambda-list: (&ENVIRONMENT ENV NAME ARGS &BODY BODY) Documentation: Define a function at top level. Source file: SYS:SRC;CODE;DEFBOOT.LISP 

Common Lisp is described by the ANSI Common Lisp standard, and this standard has been HTMLized and is available online . Its index can be used to search for the specification of a specific function, macro, special form, etc.

For quick reference, try the CL short link .

I use http://l1sp.org/ for a quick search.

Most CL environments have a keyboard shortcut that will also look like in HyperSpec. In SLIME, this is Cc Cd h .

Answer 2

Try the following:

 (documentation 'documentation 'function) (describe 'documentation) (apropos "documentation") 

And see http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Front/index.htm for the official Common Lisp specification. You can install the local version of HTML Common Lisp HyperSpec (CLHS).

If you use Emacs and SLIME ( http://common-lisp.net/project/slime/ ), you can use meta-. to see the source where the code snippet is defined. Also see ETags (or ctags) to include this function in your own code.