PARAMETERIZED-FUNCTION ====================== By Robert Smith This package provides functions which can be parameterized, whose parameters are dispatched at compile time. Parameterized functions are defined by first declaring the "dispatch function". For example, if we wanted a general multiply function that gets dispatched at compile time, we might declare the following: (define-dispatch-function mult (xtype ytype) (x y)) Next, we can define several parameterized functions. (define-parameterized-function mult (:integer :integer) (x y) (* x y)) (define-parameterized-function mult (:integer :string) (x y) (with-output-to-string (s) (loop :repeat x :do (write-string y s)))) (define-parameterized-function mult (:string :integer) (y x) (with-output-to-string (s) (loop :repeat x :do (write-string y s)))) (define-parameterized-function mult (:string :string) (x y) (concatenate 'string x y))) If we call MULT with a constant (quoted) list as the first argument, then it will be expanded, at compile time, to one of the above definitions. If the first argument is not constant, then dispatch will occur at runtime.