Description. This paper contains proposal to include information on CL lambda list of defun*-ed functions in documentation. State of art. Current implementation of defun* and defmacro* does not allow user to learn function/macro arglist via documentation. Lets consider the following code: (defun* tmp-cl-func (x y &optional (a b c) &key d) "Some docs" (progn nil)) After evaluation of this code the documentation on tmp-cl-func says: ---------------------------------------- `tmp-cl-func' is a Lisp function (tmp-cl-func X Y &rest --REST--48142) Documentation: Some docs ---------------------------------------- This info stores no information on the actual arguments list of `tmp-cl-func'. Proposal. I propose to modify defun*/defmacro* -related code to add information on function/macro Common Lisp arguments list to on-line documentation on function/macros they produce. Simple implementation. One very simple way to solve the problem is to add arguments list directly to documentation strings. See patch below. In the case with `tmp-cl-func' it gives: ---------------------------------------- `tmp-cl-func' is a Lisp function (tmp-cl-func X Y &rest --REST--48144) Documentation: Common Lisp lambda list: (tmp-cl-func X Y &optional (A B C) &key D) Some docs ---------------------------------------- The drawback is that confusingly looking "&rest --REST--48144" is still displayed. The second observation is that argument list description should not be a part of doc string. Docstrings are written manually and describes functionality of function/macro. Arglist description is just signature of function and should be generated by system in run-time. Nick. Index: cl-macs.el =================================================================== RCS file: /usr/CVSroot/XEmacs/xemacs/lisp/cl-macs.el,v retrieving revision 1.4.2.15 diff -u -r1.4.2.15 cl-macs.el --- cl-macs.el 2000/12/01 09:54:30 1.4.2.15 +++ cl-macs.el 2001/01/10 17:44:12 ＠＠ -150,11 +150,33 ＠＠ (defvar bind-block) (defvar bind-defs) (defvar bind-enquote) (defvar bind-inits) (defvar bind-lets) (defvar bind-forms) +(defun cl-upcase-arg (arg) + (cond ((symbolp arg) + (if (memq arg lambda-list-keywords) + arg + (intern (upcase (symbol-name arg))))) + ((listp arg) + (mapcar 'cl-upcase-arg arg)))) + +(defun cl-function-arglist (function agrlist) + (prin1-to-string + (cons function (cl-upcase-arg agrlist)))) + (defun cl-transform-lambda (form bind-block) (let* ((args (car form)) (body (cdr form)) (bind-defs nil) (bind-enquote nil) (bind-inits nil) (bind-lets nil) (bind-forms nil) - (header nil) (simple-args nil)) + (header nil) (simple-args nil) + (doc "")) + ;; Add CL lambda list to documentation + (if (stringp (car body)) + (setq doc (cl-pop body))) + (cl-push (concat "\nCommon Lisp lambda list:\n" + " " (cl-function-arglist bind-block args) + "\n\n" + doc) + header) + (while (or (stringp (car body)) (eq (car-safe (car body)) 'interactive)) (cl-push (cl-pop body) header)) (setq args (if (listp args) (copy-list args) (list '&rest args)))