Practical Common Lisp

Typographical Conventions

Inline text set like this is code, usually the names of functions, variables, classes, and so on, that either I've just introduced or I'm about to introduce. Names defined by the language standard are set like this: DEFUN. Larger bits of example code are set like this:

(defun foo (x y z)   (+ x y z))

Since Common Lisp's syntax is notable for its regularity and simplicity, I use simple templates to describe the syntax of various Lisp forms. For instance, the following describes the syntax of DEFUN, the standard function-defining macro:

(defun name (parameter*)   [documentation-string ]   body-form*)

Names in italic in those templates are meant to be filled in with specific names or forms that I'll describe in the text. ...