# PAX Manual ###### [in package MGL-PAX with nicknames PAX] ## Introduction What if documentation really lived in the code? Docstrings are already there. If some narrative glued them together, we'd be able develop and explore the code along with the documentation due to their physical proximity. The main tool that PAX provides for this is DEFSECTION: (defsection @foo-random-manual (:title "Foo Random manual") "Foo Random is a random number generator library." (foo-random-state class) (uniform-random function) (@foo-random-examples section)) Like this one, sections can have docstrings and references to definitions (e.g. (UNIFORM-RANDOM FUNCTION)). These docstrings and references are the glue. To support interactive development, PAX - makes SLIME's M-. work with references and - adds a documentation browser. See Emacs Setup. Beyond interactive workflows, Generating Documentation from sections and all the referenced items in Markdown or HTML format is also implemented. With the simplistic tools provided, one may emphasize the narrative as with Literate Programming, but documentation is generated from code, not vice versa, and there is no support for chunking. Code is first, code must look pretty, documentation is code. ##### Docstrings PAX automatically recognizes and marks up code with backticks and links names in code to their definitions. Take, for instance, SBCL's ABORT function, whose docstring is written in the usual style, uppercasing names of symbols: (docstring #'abort) => "Transfer control to a restart named ABORT, signalling a CONTROL-ERROR if none exists." Note how in the generated documentation, ABORT is set with a monospace font, while CONTROL-ERROR is Autolinked: - [function] ABORT &OPTIONAL CONDITION Transfer control to a restart named ABORT, signalling a CONTROL-ERROR if none exists. [6bc0]: http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/e_contro.htm "CONTROL-ERROR CONDITION" The following transcript shows the raw Markdown for the previous example. (document #'abort :format :markdown) .. - [function] **ABORT** *&OPTIONAL CONDITION* .. .. Transfer control to a restart named `ABORT`, signalling .. a [`CONTROL-ERROR`][7c2c] if none exists. .. .. [7c2c]: http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/e_contro.htm "CONTROL-ERROR (MGL-PAX:CLHS CONDITION)" .. ##### A Complete Example Here is an example of how it all works together: (mgl-pax:define-package :foo-random (:documentation "This package provides various utilities for random. See FOO-RANDOM:@FOO-RANDOM-MANUAL.") (:use #:common-lisp #:mgl-pax)) (in-package :foo-random) (defsection @foo-random-manual (:title "Foo Random manual") "FOO-RANDOM is a random number generator library inspired by CL:RANDOM. Functions such as UNIFORM-RANDOM use *FOO-STATE* and have a :RANDOM-STATE keyword arg." (foo-random-state class) (state (reader foo-random-state)) "Hey we can also print states!" (print-object (method (foo-random-state t))) (*foo-state* variable) (gaussian-random function) (uniform-random function) ;; This is a subsection. (@foo-random-examples section)) (defclass foo-random-state () ((state :reader state))) (defmethod print-object ((object foo-random-state) stream) (print-unreadable-object (object stream :type t))) (defvar *foo-state* (make-instance 'foo-random-state) "Much like *RANDOM-STATE* but uses the FOO algorithm.") (defun uniform-random (limit &key (random-state *foo-state*)) "Return a random number from the between 0 and LIMIT (exclusive) uniform distribution." nil) (defun gaussian-random (stddev &key (random-state *foo-state*)) "Return a random number from a zero mean normal distribution with STDDEV." nil) (defsection @foo-random-examples (:title "Examples") "Let's see the transcript of a real session of someone working with FOO: ```cl-transcript (values (princ :hello) (list 1 2)) .. HELLO => :HELLO => (1 2) (make-instance 'foo-random-state) ==> #<FOO-RANDOM-STATE > ```") Note how (VARIABLE *FOO-STATE*) in the DEFSECTION form both exports *FOO-STATE* and includes its documentation in @FOO-RANDOM-MANUAL. The symbols VARIABLE and FUNCTION are just two instances of locatives, which are used in DEFSECTION to refer to definitions tied to symbols. (DOCUMENT @FOO-RANDOM-MANUAL) generates fancy Markdown or HTML output with automatic markup and Autolinks uppercase words found in docstrings, numbers sections, and creates a table of contents. One can even generate documentation for different but related libraries at the same time with the output going to different files but with cross-page links being automatically added for symbols mentioned in docstrings. In fact, this is what PAX World does. See Generating Documentation for some convenience functions to cover the most common cases. The transcript in the code block tagged with cl-transcript is automatically checked for up-to-dateness when documentation is generated. ## Links and Systems Here is the [official repository](https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax) and the [HTML documentation](http://melisgl.github.io/mgl-pax-world/mgl-pax-manual.html) for the latest version. There is also a PAX channel on youtube with a couple of videos. [pax-yt]: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxbqYr4DvjX68AEdLky4IiHG69VJu6f5s PAX is built on top of the DRef library (bundled in the same repository). - Installation for deployment The base system is mgl-pax. It has very few dependencies and is sufficient as a dependency for systems using the Basics to add documentation. This is to keep deployed code small. To install only the bare minimum, with no intention of using Navigating Sources in Emacs, Generating Documentation, Browsing Live Documentation or using Transcripts, under Quicklisp for example, PAX could be installed as: (ql:quickload "mgl-pax") - Installation for development The heavier dependencies are on the other systems, which correspond to the main functionalities provided, intended to be used primarily during development. To install the dependencies for all features under Quicklisp, do (ql:quickload "mgl-pax/full") Having thus installed the dependencies, it is enough to load the base system, which will autoload the other systems as necessary. - [system] "mgl-pax" - Version: 0.4.4 - Description: Documentation system, browser, generator. See the PAX Manual. - Long Description: The base system. See Links and Systems. - Licence: MIT, see COPYING. - Author: Gábor Melis - Mailto: [mega@retes.hu](mailto:mega@retes.hu) - Homepage: [http://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax](http://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax) - Bug tracker: [https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax/issues](https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax/issues) - Source control: [GIT](https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax.git) - Depends on: dref, mgl-pax-bootstrap, named-readtables, pythonic-string-reader - Defsystem depends on: mgl-pax.asdf - [system] "mgl-pax/navigate" - Description: Support for Navigating Sources in Emacs via Slime's M-. in MGL-PAX. - Depends on: alexandria, dref/full, mgl-pax, swank(?) - Defsystem depends on: mgl-pax.asdf - [system] "mgl-pax/document" - Description: Support for Generating Documentation in MGL-PAX. - Depends on: 3bmd, 3bmd-ext-code-blocks, 3bmd-ext-math, alexandria, colorize, md5, mgl-pax/navigate, mgl-pax/transcribe, trivial-utf-8 - Defsystem depends on: mgl-pax.asdf - [system] "mgl-pax/web" - Description: Web server for Browsing Live Documentation in MGL-PAX. - Depends on: hunchentoot, mgl-pax/document - Defsystem depends on: mgl-pax.asdf - [system] "mgl-pax/transcribe" - Description: Support for Transcripts in MGL-PAX. - Depends on: alexandria, mgl-pax/navigate - Defsystem depends on: mgl-pax.asdf - [system] "mgl-pax/full" - Description: The mgl-pax system with all features preloaded. - Depends on: mgl-pax/document, mgl-pax/navigate, mgl-pax/transcribe, mgl-pax/web ## Emacs Setup Here is a quick recipe for setting up PAX for use via SLIME to take advantage of the conveniences on offer. Conversely, there is no need to do any of this just to use DEFSECTION, write docstrings and for Generating Documentation. If PAX was installed from Quicklisp, then evaluate this in CL to install the Elisp code in a stable location: (mgl-pax:install-pax-elisp "~/quicklisp/") Assuming the Elisp file is in the ~/quicklisp/ directory, add something like this to your .emacs: (add-to-list 'load-path "~/quicklisp/") (require 'mgl-pax) (global-set-key (kbd "C-.") 'mgl-pax-document) (global-set-key (kbd "s-x t") 'mgl-pax-transcribe-last-expression) (global-set-key (kbd "s-x r") 'mgl-pax-retranscribe-region) When Browsing with Other Browsers, for clicking on the locative next to a definition to visit the corresponding source location in Emacs, permission needs to be given: (setq slime-enable-evaluate-in-emacs t) ### Functionality Provided - For Navigating Sources in Emacs, loading mgl-pax extends slime-edit-definitions (M-.) by adding mgl-pax-edit-definitions to slime-edit-definition-hooks. There are no related variables to customize. - For Browsing Live Documentation, mgl-pax-browser-function and mgl-pax-web-server-port can be customized in Elisp. To browse within Emacs, choose w3m-browse-url (see w3m), and make sure both the w3m binary and the w3m Emacs package are installed. On Debian, simply install the w3m-el package. With other browser functions, a HUNCHENTOOT web server is started. - See Transcribing with Emacs for how to use the transcription features. There are no related variables to customize. Independently from the Common Lisp side, the Elisp functions mgl-pax-hideshow-documentation and mgl-pax-hideshow-comments help focus on the code only by folding or unfolding MGL-PAX:DEFSECTION, MGL-PAX:DEFINE-GLOSSARY-TERM forms and long strings, or comments. ### Installing from Quicklisp If you installed PAX with Quicklisp, the location of mgl-pax.el may change with updates, and you may want to copy the current version of mgl-pax.el to a stable location by evaluating this in CL: (mgl-pax:install-pax-elisp "~/quicklisp/") If working from, say, a git checkout, there is no need for this step. - [function] INSTALL-PAX-ELISP TARGET-DIR Install mgl-pax.el distributed with this package in TARGET-DIR. ### Loading PAX Assuming the Elisp file is in the ~/quicklisp/ directory, add something like this to your .emacs: (add-to-list 'load-path "~/quicklisp/") (require 'mgl-pax) If the Elisp variable mgl-pax-autoload is true (the default), then PAX will be loaded in the connected Lisp on-demand via SLIME. If loading fails, mgl-pax will be unloaded from Emacs and any overridden Slime key bindings restored. ### Setting up Keys The recommended key bindings are this: (global-set-key (kbd "C-.") 'mgl-pax-document) (global-set-key (kbd "s-x t") 'mgl-pax-transcribe-last-expression) (global-set-key (kbd "s-x r") 'mgl-pax-retranscribe-region) The global key bindings above are global because their commands work in any mode. If that's not desired, one may bind C-. locally in all Slime related modes like this: (slime-bind-keys slime-parent-map nil '(("C-." mgl-pax-document))) If the customizable variable mgl-pax-hijack-slime-doc-keys is true, then upon loading mgl-pax, the following changes are made to slime-doc-map (assuming it's bound to C-c C-d): - C-c C-d a: replaces slime-apropos with mgl-pax-apropos - C-c C-d z: replaces slime-apropos-all with mgl-pax-apropos-all - C-c C-d p: replaces slime-apropos-package with mgl-pax-apropos-package - C-c C-d f: replaces slime-describe-function with mgl-pax-document - C-c C-d d: replaces slime-describe-symbol with mgl-pax-hideshow-documentation - C-c C-d c: installs mgl-pax-hideshow-comments - C-c C-d u: installs mgl-pax-edit-parent-section Calling mgl-pax-unhijack-slime-doc-keys reverts these changes. ## Background As a user, I frequently run into documentation that's incomplete and out of date, so I tend to stay in the editor and explore the code by jumping around with SLIME's M-. (slime-edit-definition). As a library author, I spend a great deal of time polishing code but precious little writing documentation. In fact, I rarely write anything more comprehensive than docstrings for exported stuff. Writing docstrings feels easier than writing a separate user manual, and they are always close at hand during development. The drawback of this style is that users of the library have to piece the big picture together themselves. That's easy to solve, I thought, let's just put all the narrative that holds docstrings together in the code and be a bit like a Literate Programmer turned inside out. The original prototype, which did almost everything I wanted, was this: (defmacro defsection (name docstring) `(defun ,name () ,docstring)) Armed with this DEFSECTION, I soon found myself organizing code following the flow of user-level documentation and relegated comments to implementation details entirely. However, some parts of DEFSECTION docstrings were just listings of all the functions, macros and variables related to the narrative, and this list was repeated in the DEFPACKAGE form complete with little comments that were like section names. A clear violation of OAOO, one of them had to go, so DEFSECTION got a list of symbols to export. That was great, but soon I found that the listing of symbols is ambiguous if, for example, a function, a compiler macro and a class were named by the same symbol. This did not concern exporting, of course, but it didn't help readability. Distractingly, on such symbols, M-. was popping up selection dialogs. There were two birds to kill, and the symbol got accompanied by a type, which was later generalized into the concept of locatives: (defsection @introduction () "A single line for one man ..." (foo class) (bar function)) After a bit of elisp hacking, M-. was smart enough to disambiguate based on the locative found in the vicinity of the symbol, and everything was good for a while. Then, I realized that sections could refer to other sections if there were a SECTION locative. Going down that path, I soon began to feel the urge to generate pretty documentation as all the necessary information was available in the DEFSECTION forms. The design constraint imposed on documentation generation was that following the typical style of upcasing symbols in docstrings, there should be no need to explicitly mark up links: if M-. works, then the documentation generator shall also be able figure out what's being referred to. I settled on Markdown as a reasonably non-intrusive format, and a few thousand lines later PAX was born. Since then, locatives and references were factored out into the DRef library to let PAX focus on M-. and documentation. ## Basics Now let's examine the most important pieces. - [macro] DEFSECTION NAME (&KEY (PACKAGE '*PACKAGE*) (READTABLE '*READTABLE*) (EXPORT T) TITLE LINK-TITLE-TO (DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P *DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P*)) &BODY ENTRIES Define a documentation section and maybe export referenced symbols. A bit behind the scenes, a global variable with NAME is defined and is bound to a SECTION object. By convention, section names start with the character @. See Introduction for an example. Entries ENTRIES consists of docstrings and references in any order. Docstrings are arbitrary strings in Markdown format. References are XREFs given in the form (NAME LOCATIVE). For example, (FOO FUNCTION) refers to the function FOO, (@BAR SECTION) says that @BAR is a subsection of this one. (BAZ (METHOD (T T T))) refers to the default method of the three argument generic function BAZ. (FOO FUNCTION) is equivalent to (FOO (FUNCTION)). See the DRef Introduction for more. The same name may occur in multiple references, typically with different locatives, but this is not required. The references are not LOCATEd until documentation is generated, so they may refer to things yet to be defined. Exporting If EXPORT is true (the default), NAME and the names of references among ENTRIES which are SYMBOLs are candidates for exporting. A candidate symbol is exported if - it is accessible in PACKAGE, and - there is a reference to it in the section being defined which is approved by EXPORTABLE-REFERENCE-P. See DEFINE-PACKAGE if you use the export feature. The idea with confounding documentation and exporting is to force documentation of all exported symbols. Misc TITLE is a string containing Markdown or NIL. If non-NIL, it determines the text of the heading in the generated output. LINK-TITLE-TO is a reference given as an (NAME LOCATIVE) pair or NIL, to which the heading will link when generating HTML. If not specified, the heading will link to its own anchor. When DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P (defaults to *DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P*) is true, ENTRIES will not be recorded to save memory. - [variable] *DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P* NIL The default value of DEFSECTION's DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P argument. One may want to set *DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P* to true before building a binary application. - [macro] DEFINE-PACKAGE PACKAGE &REST OPTIONS This is like CL:DEFPACKAGE but silences warnings and errors signalled when the redefined package is at variance with the current state of the package. Typically this situation occurs when symbols are exported by calling EXPORT (as is the case with DEFSECTION) as opposed to adding :EXPORT forms to the DEFPACKAGE form and the package definition is subsequently reevaluated. See the section on [package variance](http://www.sbcl.org/manual/#Package-Variance) in the SBCL manual. The bottom line is that if you rely on DEFSECTION to do the exporting, then you'd better use DEFINE-PACKAGE. - [macro] DEFINE-GLOSSARY-TERM NAME (&KEY TITLE URL (DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P *DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P*)) &BODY DOCSTRING Define a global variable with NAME, and set it to a GLOSSARY-TERM object. TITLE, URL and DOCSTRING are Markdown strings or NIL. Glossary terms are DOCUMENTed in the lightweight bullet + locative + name/title style. See the glossary entry name for an example. When a glossary term is linked to in documentation, its TITLE will be the link text instead of the name of the symbol (as with SECTIONs). Glossary entries with a non-NIL URL are like external links: they are linked to their URL in the generated documentation. These offer a more reliable alternative to using Markdown reference links and are usually not included in SECTIONs. When DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P (defaults to *DISCARD-DOCUMENTATION-P*) is true, DOCSTRING will not be recorded to save memory. - [macro] NOTE &BODY ARGS Define a note with an optional NAME and an optional DOCSTRING. The DOCSTRING of the note is its own docstring concatenated with docstrings of other notes in the lexical scope of BODY. ARGS has the form [NAME] [DOCSTRING] BODY, where the square brackets indicate optional arguments. See below for the details of parsing ARGS. NOTE is experimental and as such subject to change. NOTE can occur in an any evaluated position without changing its BODY's run-time behaviour or introducing any run-time overhead. Top level forms remain top level when whrapped in NOTE. The names of notes live in the same global namespace regardless of nesting or whether they are top level forms. These properties come at the price of NOTE being weird: it defines named notes at macro-expansion time (or load time). But the definitions are idempotent, so it's fine to macroexpand NOTE any number of times. Notes are similar to Lisp comments, but they can be included in the documentation. In fact, notes are auto-included: a Specific Link to a note is equivalent to including it with the DOCSTRING locative. Notes are intended to help reduce the distance between code and its documentation when there is no convenient definition docstring to use nearby. (note @xxx "We change the package." (in-package :mgl-pax)) ==> #<PACKAGE "MGL-PAX"> (values (docstring (dref '@xxx 'note))) => "We change the package." Here is an example of how to overdo things: (note @1+* "This is a seriously overdone example." (defun 1+* (x) "[@1+* note][docstring]" (if (stringp x) (note (@1+*/1 :join #\Newline) "- If X is a STRING, then it is parsed as a REAL number." (let ((obj (read-from-string x))) (note "It is an error if X does not contain a REAL." (unless (realp obj) (assert nil))) (1+ obj))) (note "- Else, X is assumed to be REAL number, and we simply add 1 to it." (1+ x))))) (1+* "7") => 8 (values (docstring (dref '@1+* 'note))) => "This is a seriously overdone example. - If X is a STRING, then it is parsed as a REAL number. It is an error if X does not contain a REAL. - Else, X is assumed to be REAL number, and we simply add 1 to it." The parsing of ARGS: - If the first element of ARGS is not a string, then it is a NAME (a non-NIL SYMBOL) or name with options, currently destructured as (NAME &KEY JOIN). As in DEFSECTION and DEFINE-GLOSSARY-TERM, the convention is that NAME starts with a @ character. JOIN is PRINCed before the docstring of a child note is output. Its default value is a string of two newline characters. - The next element of ARGS is a Markdown docstring. See Markdown in Docstrings. - The rest of ARGS is the BODY. If BODY is empty, then NIL is returned. Note that named and nameless notes can contain other named or nameless notes without restriction, but nameless notes without a lexically enclosing named note are just an implicit progn with BODY, and their docstring is discarded. If NOTE occurs as a top level form, then its SOURCE-LOCATION is reliably recorded. Else, the quality of the source location varies, but it is at least within the right top level form on all implementations. On SBCL, exact source location is supported. ## PAX Locatives To the Basic Locative Types defined by DRef, PAX adds a few of its own. - [locative] SECTION - Direct locative supertypes: VARIABLE Refers to a SECTION defined by DEFSECTION. SECTION is EXPORTABLE-LOCATIVE-TYPE-P but not exported by default (see EXPORTABLE-REFERENCE-P). - [locative] GLOSSARY-TERM - Direct locative supertypes: VARIABLE Refers to a GLOSSARY-TERM defined by DEFINE-GLOSSARY-TERM. GLOSSARY-TERM is EXPORTABLE-LOCATIVE-TYPE-P but not exported by default (see EXPORTABLE-REFERENCE-P). - [locative] NOTE Refers to named notes defined by the NOTE macro. If a single link would be made to a NOTE (be it either a Specific Link or an unambiguous Unspecific Link), then the NOTE's DOCSTRING is included as if with the DOCSTRING locative. NOTE is EXPORTABLE-LOCATIVE-TYPE-P but not exported by default (see EXPORTABLE-REFERENCE-P). - [locative] DISLOCATED Refers to a symbol in a non-specific context. Useful for suppressing Unspecific Autolinking. For example, if there is a function called FOO then `FOO` will be linked (if *DOCUMENT-LINK-CODE*) to its definition. However, [`FOO`][dislocated] will not be. With a dislocated locative, LOCATE always fails with a LOCATE-ERROR condition. Also see Escaping Autolinking. DISLOCATED references do not RESOLVE. - [locative] ARGUMENT An alias for DISLOCATED, so that one can refer to an argument of a macro without accidentally linking to a class that has the same name as that argument. In the following example, FORMAT may link to CL:FORMAT (if we generated documentation for it): "See FORMAT in DOCUMENT." Since ARGUMENT is a locative, we can prevent that linking by writing: "See the FORMAT argument of DOCUMENT." ARGUMENT references do not RESOLVE. - [locative] INCLUDE SOURCE &KEY LINE-PREFIX HEADER FOOTER HEADER-NL FOOTER-NL This PSEUDO locative refers to a region of a file. SOURCE can be a STRING or a PATHNAME, in which case the whole file is being pointed to, or it can explicitly supply START, END locatives. INCLUDE is typically used to include non-lisp files in the documentation (say Markdown or Elisp as in the next example) or regions of Lisp source files. This can reduce clutter and duplication. (defsection @example-section () (mgl-pax.el (include #.(asdf:system-relative-pathname :mgl-pax "src/mgl-pax.el") :header-nl "```elisp" :footer-nl "```")) (foo-example (include (:start (dref-ext:make-source-location function) :end (dref-ext:source-location-p function)) :header-nl "```" :footer-nl "```"))) In the above example, when documentation is generated, the entire src/mgl-pax.el file is included in the Markdown output surrounded by the strings given as HEADER-NL and FOOTER-NL. The documentation of FOO-EXAMPLE will be the region of the file from the SOURCE-LOCATION of the START reference (inclusive) to the SOURCE-LOCATION of the END reference (exclusive). If only one of START and END is specified, then they default to the beginning and end of the file, respectively. Since START and END are literal references, pressing M-. on PAX.EL will open the src/mgl-pax.el file and put the cursor on its first character. M-. on FOO-EXAMPLE will go to the source location of the FOO function. With the LAMBDA locative, one can specify positions in arbitrary files. - SOURCE is either an absolute pathname designator or a list matching the destructuring lambda list (&KEY START END), where START and END must be NIL or (<NAME> <LOCATIVE>) lists (not evaluated) like a DEFSECTION entry. Their SOURCE-LOCATIONs constitute the bounds of the region of the file to be included. Note that the file of the source location of START and END must be the same. If SOURCE is a pathname designator, then it must be absolute so that the locative is context independent. - If specified, LINE-PREFIX is a string that's prepended to each line included in the documentation. For example, a string of four spaces makes Markdown think it's a code block. - HEADER and FOOTER, if non-NIL, are printed before the included string. - HEADER-NL and FOOTER-NL, if non-NIL, are printed between two FRESH-LINE calls. INCLUDE is not EXPORTABLE-LOCATIVE-TYPE-P, and INCLUDE references do not RESOLVE. - [locative] DOCSTRING DOCSTRING is a PSEUDO locative for including the parse tree of the Markdown DOCSTRING of a definition in the parse tree of a docstring when generating documentation. It has no source location information and only works as an explicit link. This construct is intended to allow docstrings to live closer to their implementation, which typically involves a non-exported definition. (defun div2 (x) "X must be [even* type][docstring]." (/ x 2)) (deftype even* () "an even integer" '(satisfies evenp)) (document #'div2) .. - [function] DIV2 X .. .. X must be an even integer. .. There is no way to LOCATE DOCSTRINGs, so nothing to RESOLVE either. - [locative] GO (NAME LOCATIVE) Redirect to a definition in the context of the reference designated by NAME and LOCATIVE. This PSEUDO locative is intended for things that have no explicit global definition. As an example, consider this part of a hypothetical documentation of CLOS: (defsection @clos () (defmethod macro) (call-next-method (go (defmethod macro)))) The GO reference exports the symbol CALL-NEXT-METHOD and also produces a terse redirection message in the documentation. GO behaves as described below. - A GO reference RESOLVEs to what NAME with LOCATIVE resolves to: (resolve (dref 'xxx '(go (print function)))) ==> #<FUNCTION PRINT> => T - The DOCSTRING of a GO reference is NIL. - SOURCE-LOCATION (thus M-.) returns the source location of the embedded reference: (equal (source-location (dref 'xxx '(go (print function)))) (source-location (dref 'print 'function))) => T - [locative] CLHS &OPTIONAL NESTED-LOCATIVE Refers to definitions, glossary entries, sections, issues and issue summaries in the Common Lisp HyperSpec. These have no source location so M-. will not work. What works is linking in documentation, including Browsing Live Documentation. The generated links are relative to *DOCUMENT-HYPERSPEC-ROOT* and work even if *DOCUMENT-LINK-TO-HYPERSPEC* is NIL. All matching is case-insensitive. - definitions: These are typically unnecessary as DOCUMENT will produce the same link for e.g. PPRINT, [PPRINT][function], or [PPRINT][] if *DOCUMENT-LINK-TO-HYPERSPEC* is non-NIL and the PPRINT function in the running Lisp is not linkable. When Browsing Live Documentation, a slight difference is that everything is linkable, so using the CLHS link bypasses the page with the definition in the running Lisp. - unambiguous definition: [pprint][clhs] (pprint) - disambiguation page: [function][clhs] (function) - specific: [function][(clhs class)] (function) - glossary terms: - [lambda list][(clhs glossary-term)] (lambda list) - issues: - [ISSUE:AREF-1D][clhs] (ISSUE:AREF-1D) - [ISSUE:AREF-1D][(clhs section)] (ISSUE:AREF-1D) - issue summaries: These render as (SUMMARY:CHARACTER-PROPOSAL:2-6-5): - [SUMMARY:CHARACTER-PROPOSAL:2-6-5][clhs] - [SUMMARY:CHARACTER-PROPOSAL:2-6-5][(clhs section)] Since these summary ids are not particularly reader friendly, the anchor text a Specific Reflink with Text may be used: - [see this][SUMMARY:CHARACTER-PROPOSAL:2-6-5 (clhs section)] (see this). - sections: - by section number: [3.4][clhs] or [3.4][(clhs section)] (3.4) - by section title: With the locative (CLHS SECTION), substring matching against the title starting at word boundaries is performed. With the locative CLHS (where SECTION is not specified explicitly), the name must match the title exactly. For example, [lambda list][(clhs section)] refers to the same definition as [lambda lists][clhs] (Lambda Lists). - by filename: [03_d][clhs] or [03_d][(clhs section)] (03_d) - by alias - Format directives are aliases of the sections describing them. Thus, [~c][clhs] is equivalent to [22.3.1.1][clhs] and [Tilde C: Character][clhs]. The full list is ~C ~% ~& ~| ~~ ~R ~D ~B ~O ~X ~F ~E ~G ~$ ~A ~S ~W ~_ ~< ~:> ~I ~/ ~T ~< Justification ~> ~* ~[ ~] ~{ ~} ~? ~( ~) ~P ~; ~^ ~Newline. - Similarly, reader macro characters are aliases of the sections describing them. The full list is ( ) ' ; " ` , # #\\ #' #( #* #: #. #B #O #X #R #C #A #S #P #= ## #+ #- #| #< #). - Finally, loop keywords have aliases to the sections describing them. For example, the strings loop:for, for and :for are aliases of CLHS 6.1.2.1. The loop:* aliases are convenient for completion at the prompt when Browsing Live Documentation, while the other aliases are for defaulting to buffer contents. As the above examples show, the NESTED-LOCATIVE argument of the CLHS locative may be omitted. In that case, definitions, glossary terms, issues, issue summaries, and sections are considered in that order. Sections are considered last because a substring of a section title can be matched by chance easily. All examples so far used Reflinks. Autolinking also works if the name is marked up as code or is codified (e.g. in COS clhs (COS clhs). As mentioned above, M-. does not do anything over CLHS references. Slightly more usefully, the live documentation browser understands CLHS links so one can enter inputs like 3.4 clhs, "lambda list" clhs or error (clhs function). CLHS references do not RESOLVE. ## Navigating Sources in Emacs Integration into SLIME's M-. (slime-edit-definition) allows one to visit the SOURCE-LOCATION of a definition. PAX extends standard Slime functionality by - adding support for all kinds of definitions (see e.g. ASDF:SYSTEM, READTABLE in Basic Locative Types), not just the ones Slime knows about, - providing a portable way to refer to even standard definitions, - disambiguating the definition based on buffer content, and - adding more powerful completions. The definition is either determined from the buffer content at point or is prompted for. At the prompt, TAB-completion is available for both names and locatives. With a prefix argument (C-u M-.), the buffer contents are not consulted, and M-. always prompts. The M-. extensions can be enabled by loading src/mgl-pax.el. See Emacs Setup. In addition, the Elisp command mgl-pax-edit-parent-section visits the source location of the section containing the definition with point in it. A close relative of M-. is C-. for Browsing Live Documentation. ### M-. Defaulting When M-. is invoked, it first tries to find a name in the current buffer at point. If no name is found, then it prompts. First, (slime-sexp-at-point) is taken as a word, from which the name will be parsed. Then, candidate locatives are looked for before and after the word. Thus, if a locative is the previous or the next expression, then M-. will go straight to the definition which corresponds to the locative. If that fails, M-. will try to find the definitions in the normal way, which may involve popping up an xref buffer and letting the user interactively select one of possible definitions. M-. works on parenthesized references, such as those in DEFSECTION: (defsection @foo () (cos function)) Here, when the cursor is on one of the characters of COS or just after COS, pressing M-. will visit the definition of the function COS. To play nice with Generating Documentation, forms suitable for Autolinking are recognized: function cos cos function ... as well as Reflinks: [cos][function] [see this][cos function] ... and Markdown inline code: cos `function` `cos` function `cos` `function` Everything works the same way in comments and docstrings as in code. In the next example, pressing M-. on RESOLVE* will visit its denoted method: ;;; See RESOLVE* (method (function-dref)) for how this all works. ### M-. Prompting #### M-. Minibuffer Syntax At the minibuffer prompt, the definitions to edit can be specified as follows. - NAME: Refers to all DREF:DEFINITIONS of NAME with a Lisp locative type. See these NAME -> DEFINITIONS examples: print -> PRINT FUNCTION PRINT -> PRINT FUNCTION MGL-PAX -> "mgl-pax" ASDF:SYSTEM, "MGL-PAX" package pax -> "PAX" PACKAGE "PAX" -> "PAX" PACKAGE Note that depending on the Lisp implementation there may be more definitions. For example, SBCL has an UNKNOWN :DEFOPTIMIZER definition for PRINT. - NAME LOCATIVE: Refers to a single definition (as in (DREF:DREF NAME LOCATIVE)). Example inputs of this form: print function dref-ext:docstring* (method (t)) - LOCATIVE NAME: This has the same form as the previous: two sexps, but here the first one is the locative. If ambiguous, this is considered in addition to the previous one. Example inputs: function print (method (t)) dref-ext:docstring* In all of the above NAME is a raw name, meaning that print will be recognized as PRINT and pax as "PAX". The package in which symbols are read is the Elisp slime-current-package. In Lisp buffers, this is the buffer's package, else it's the package of the Slime repl buffer. #### M-. Completion When M-. prompts for the definition to edit, TAB-completion is available in the minibuffer for both names and locatives. To reduce clutter, string names are completed only if they are typed explicitly with an opening quotation mark, and they are case-sensitive. Examples: - pri<TAB> invokes the usual Slime completion. - print <TAB> (note the space) lists FUNCTION and (PAX:CLHS FUNCTION) as locatives. - class dref:<TAB> lists DREF:XREF and DREF:DREF (all the classes in the package DREF). - pax:locative <TAB> lists all locative types (see the CL function DREF:LOCATIVE-TYPES). - package "MGL<TAB> lists the names of packages that start with "MGL". - package <TAB> lists the names of all packages as strings and also CLASS, MGL-PAX:LOCATIVE because PACKAGE denotes a class and also a locative. For more powerful search, see Apropos. ## Generating Documentation ### The DOCUMENT Function - [function] DOCUMENT DOCUMENTABLE &KEY (STREAM T) PAGES (FORMAT :PLAIN) Write DOCUMENTABLE in FORMAT to STREAM diverting some output to PAGES. FORMAT is one of :PLAIN, :MARKDOWN, :HTML and :PDF or NIL. STREAM may be a STREAM object, T or NIL as with CL:FORMAT. To look up the documentation of the DOCUMENT function itself: (document #'document) The same with fancy markup: (document #'document :format :markdown) To document a SECTION: (document pax::@pax-manual) To generate the documentation for separate libraries with automatic cross-links: (document (list pax::@pax-manual dref::@dref-manual) :format :markdown) See Utilities for Generating Documentation for more. Definitions that do not define a first-class object are supported via DRef: (document (dref:locate 'foo 'type)) There are quite a few special variables that affect how output is generated, see Codification, Linking to the HyperSpec, Linking to Sections, Link Format and Output Formats. For the details, see the following sections, starting with DOCUMENTABLE. Also see Writing Extensions and DOCUMENT-OBJECT*. #### DOCUMENTABLE The DOCUMENTABLE argument of DOCUMENT may be a single object (e.g. #'PRINT'), a definition such as (DREF 'PRINT 'FUNCTION), a string, or a nested list of these. More precisely, DOCUMENTABLE is one of the following: - single definition designator: A DREF or anything else that is LOCATEable. This includes non-DREF XREFs and first-class objects such as FUNCTIONs. The generated documentation typically includes the definition's DOCSTRING. See Markdown Output for more. - docstring: A string, in which case it is processed like a docstring in DEFSECTION. That is, with docstring sanitization, Codification, and Linking. - list of documentables: A nested list of LOCATEable objects and docstrings. The objects in it are documented in depth-first order. The structure of the list is otherwise unimportant. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-TIGHT* NIL If NIL, then DOCUMENT adds a newline between consecutive atomic documentables on the same page. #### Return Values If PAGES are NIL, then DOCUMENT - like CL:FORMAT - returns a string (when STREAM is NIL) else NIL. If PAGES, then a list of output designators are returned, one for each non-empty page (to which some output has been written), which are determined as follows. - The string itself if the output was to a string. - The stream if the output was to a stream. - The pathname of the file if the output was to a file. If the default page given by the STREAM argument of DOCUMENT was written to, then its output designator is the first element of the returned list. The rest of the designators correspond to the non-empty pages in the PAGES argument of DOCUMENT in that order. #### PAGES The PAGES argument of DOCUMENT is to create multi-page documents by routing some of the generated output to files, strings or streams. PAGES is a list of page specification elements. A page spec is a property list with keys :OBJECTS, :OUTPUT, :URI-FRAGMENT, :SOURCE-URI-FN, :HEADER-FN and :FOOTER-FN. OBJECTS is a list of objects (references are allowed but not required) whose documentation is to be sent to :OUTPUT. PAGES may look something like this: `((;; The section about SECTIONs and everything below it ... :objects (, @sections) ;; ... is so boring that it's not worth the disk space, so ;; send it to a string. :output (nil) ;; Explicitly tell other pages not to link to these guys. :uri-fragment nil) ;; Send the @EXTENSION-API section and everything reachable ;; from it ... (:objects (, @extension-api) ;; ... to build/tmp/pax-extension-api.html. :output "build/tmp/pax-extension-api.html" ;; However, on the web server html files will be at this ;; location relative to some common root, so override the ;; default: :uri-fragment "doc/dev/pax-extension-api.html" ;; Set html page title, stylesheet, charset. :header-fn 'write-html-header ;; Just close the body. :footer-fn 'write-html-footer) ;; Catch references that were not reachable from the above. It ;; is important for this page spec to be last. (:objects (, @pax-manual) :output "build/tmp/manual.html" ;; Links from the extension api page to the manual page will ;; be to ../user/pax-manual#<anchor>, while links going to ;; the opposite direction will be to ;; ../dev/pax-extension-api.html#<anchor>. :uri-fragment "doc/user/pax-manual.html" :header-fn 'write-html-header :footer-fn 'write-html-footer)) Documentation is initially sent to a default stream (the STREAM argument of DOCUMENT), but output is redirected if the thing being currently documented is the :OBJECT of a PAGE-SPEC. - :OUTPUT can be a number things: - If it's NIL, then output will be collected in a string. - If it's T, then output will be sent to *STANDARD-OUTPUT*. - If it's a stream, then output will be sent to that stream. - If it's a list whose first element is a string or a pathname, then output will be sent to the file denoted by that and the rest of the elements of the list are passed on to CL:OPEN. One extra keyword argument is :ENSURE-DIRECTORIES-EXIST. If it's true, ENSURE-DIRECTORIES-EXIST will be called on the pathname before it's opened. Note that even if PAGES is specified, STREAM acts as a catch all, absorbing the generated documentation for references not claimed by any pages. - :HEADER-FN, if not NIL, is a function of a single stream argument, which is called just before the first write to the page. Since :FORMAT :HTML only generates HTML fragments, this makes it possible to print arbitrary headers, typically setting the title, CSS stylesheet, or charset. - :FOOTER-FN is similar to :HEADER-FN, but it's called after the last write to the page. For HTML, it typically just closes the body. - :URI-FRAGMENT is a string such as "doc/manual.html" that specifies where the page will be deployed on a webserver. It defines how links between pages will look. If it's not specified and :OUTPUT refers to a file, then it defaults to the name of the file. If :URI-FRAGMENT is NIL, then no links will be made to or from that page. - :SOURCE-URI-FN is a function of a single, DREF argument. If it returns a value other than NIL, then it must be a string representing an URI. This affects *DOCUMENT-MARK-UP-SIGNATURES* and *DOCUMENT-FANCY-HTML-NAVIGATION*. Also see MAKE-GIT-SOURCE-URI-FN. #### Package and Readtable While generating documentation, symbols may be read (e.g. from docstrings) and printed. What values of *PACKAGE* and *READTABLE* are used is determined separately for each definition being documented. - If the values of *PACKAGE* and *READTABLE* in effect at the time of definition were captured (e.g. by DEFINE-LOCATIVE-TYPE and DEFSECTION), then they are used. - Else, if the definition has a Home Section (see below), then the home section's SECTION-PACKAGE and SECTION-READTABLE are used. - Else, if the definition has an argument list, then the package of the first argument that's not external in any package is used. - Else, if the definition is named by a symbol, then its SYMBOL-PACKAGE is used, and *READTABLE* is set to the standard readtable (NAMED-READTABLES:FIND-READTABLE :COMMON-LISP). - Else, *PACKAGE* is set to the CL-USER package and *READTABLE* to the standard readtable. The values thus determined come into effect after the name itself is printed, for printing of the arglist and the docstring. CL-USER> (pax:document #'foo) - [function] FOO <!> X Y &KEY (ERRORP T) Do something with X and Y. In the above, the <!> marks the place where *PACKAGE* and *READTABLE* are bound. ##### Home Section The home section of an object is a SECTION that contains the object's definition in its SECTION-ENTRIES or NIL. In the overwhelming majority of cases there should be at most one containing section. If there are multiple containing sections, the following apply. - If the name of the definition is a non-keyword symbol, only those containing sections are considered whose package is closest to the SYMBOL-PACKAGE of the name, where closest is defined as having the longest common prefix between the two PACKAGE-NAMEs. - If there are multiple sections with equally long matches or the name is not a non-keyword symbol, then it's undefined which one is the home section. For example, (MGL-PAX:DOCUMENT FUNCTION) is an entry in the MGL-PAX::@BASICS section. Unless another section that contains it is defined in the MGL-PAX package, the home section is guaranteed to be MGL-PAX::@BASICS because the SYMBOL-PACKAGEs of MGL-PAX:DOCUMENT and MGL-PAX::@BASICS are the same (hence their common prefix is maximally long). This scheme would also work, for example, if the home package of DOCUMENT were MGL-PAX/IMPL, and it were reexported from MGL-PAX because the only way to externally change the home package would be to define a containing section in a package like MGL-PAX/IMP. Thus, relying on the package system makes it possible to find the intended home section of a definition among multiple containing sections with high probability. However, for names which are not symbols, there is no package system to advantage of. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-NORMALIZE-PACKAGES* T Whether to print [in package <package-name>] in the documentation when the package changes. ### Browsing Live Documentation Documentation for definitions in the running Lisp can be browsed directly without generating documentation in the offline manner. HTML documentation, complete with Codification and Linking, is generated from docstrings of all kinds of definitions and PAX SECTIONs in the running Lisp on the fly. This allows ad-hoc exploration of the Lisp, much like describe-function, apropos-command and other online help commands in Emacs, for which direct parallels are provided. Still, even without Emacs and SLIME, limited functionality can be accessed through PAX Live Home Page by starting the live documentation web server manually. If Emacs Setup has been done, the Elisp function mgl-pax-document (maybe bound to C-.) generates and displays documentation as a single HTML page. If necessary, a disambiguation page is generated with the documentation of all matching definitions. For example, to view the documentation of this very SECTION, one can do: M-x mgl-pax-document View Documentation of: pax::@browsing-live-documentation Alternatively, pressing C-. with point over the text pax::@browsing-live-documentation in a buffer achieves the same effect. In interactive use, mgl-pax-document behaves similarly to M-. except: - It shows the DOCUMENTation of some definition and does not visit its SOURCE-LOCATION. - It considers definitions with all LOCATIVE-TYPES not just LISP-LOCATIVE-TYPES because it doesn't need SOURCE-LOCATION. This also means that completion works for CLHS definitions: - "lambda list<TAB> lists "lambda list" and "lambda list keywords", both HyperSpec glossary entries. This is similar to common-lisp-hyperspec-glossary-term in Elisp but also works for HyperSpec section titles. - "#<TAB> lists all sharpsign reader macros (similar to common-lisp-hyperspec-lookup-reader-macro in Elisp). - "~<TAB> lists all CL:FORMAT directives (similar to common-lisp-hyperspec-format in Elisp). - "loop:~<TAB> lists all loop keywords. - It works in non-lisp-mode buffers by reinterpreting a few lines of text surrounding point as lisp code (hence the suggested global binding). - It supports fragment syntax at the prompt: NAME LOCATIVE FRAGMENT-NAME FRAGMENT-LOCATIVE This is like NAME LOCATIVE, but the browser scrolls to the definition of FRAGMENT-NAME FRAGMENT-LOCATIVE within that page. For example, entering this at the prompt will generate the entire PAX manual as a single page and scroll to the very section you are reading within it: pax::@pax-manual pax:section pax::@browsing-live-documentation pax:section - If the empty string is entered at the prompt, and there is no existing w3m buffer or w3m is not used, then PAX Live Home Page is visited. If there is a w3m buffer, then entering the empty string displays that buffer. The convenience function mgl-pax-current-definition-toggle-view (C-c C-d c) documents the definition with point in it. #### Browsing with w3m When the value of the Elisp variable mgl-pax-browser-function is w3m-browse-url (see Emacs Setup), the Emacs w3m browser is used without the need for a web server, and also offering somewhat tighter integration than Browsing with Other Browsers. With w3m's default key bindings, moving the cursor between links involves TAB and S-TAB (or <up> and <down>). RET and <right> follow a link, while B and <left> go back in history. In addition, the following PAX-specific key bindings are available: - M-. visits the source location of the definition corresponding to the link under the point. - Invoking mgl-pax-document on a section title link will show the documentation of that section on its own page. - n moves to the next PAX definition on the page. - p moves to the previous PAX definition on the page. - u follows the first Up: link (to the first containing SECTION) if any. - U is like u but positions the cursor at the top of the page. - v visits the source location of the current definition (the one under the cursor or the first one above it). - V visits the source location of the first definition on the page. #### Browsing with Other Browsers When the value of the Elisp variable mgl-pax-browser-function is not w3m-browse-url (see Emacs Setup), requests are served via a web server started in the running Lisp, and documentation is most likely displayed in a separate browser window. By default, mgl-pax-browser-function is nil, which makes PAX use browse-url-browser-function. You may want to customize the related browse-url-new-window-flag or, for Chrome, set browse-url-chrome-arguments to ("--new-window"). By default, mgl-pax-web-server-port is nil, and PAX will pick a free port automatically. In the browser, clicking on the locative on the left of the name (e.g. in - [function] PRINT) will raise and focus the Emacs window (if Emacs is not in text mode, and also subject to window manager focus stealing settings), then go to the corresponding source location. For sections, clicking on the lambda link will do the same (see *DOCUMENT-FANCY-HTML-NAVIGATION*). Finally, note that the URLs exposed by the web server are subject to change, and even the port used may vary by session if the Elisp variable mgl-pax-web-server-port is nil. - [variable] *BROWSE-HTML-STYLE* :CHARTER The HTML style to use for browsing live documentation. Affects only non-w3m browsers. See *DOCUMENT-HTML-DEFAULT-STYLE* for the possible values. If you change this variable, you may need to do a hard refresh in the browser (often C-<f5>). #### Apropos The Elisp functions mgl-pax-apropos, mgl-pax-apropos-all, and mgl-pax-apropos-package can display the results of DREF-APROPOS in the live documentation browser. These extend the functionality of slime-apropos, slime-apropos-all and slime-apropos-package to support more kinds of definitions in an extensible way. The correspondence is so close that the PAX versions might take over the Slime key bindings. Note that apropos functionality is also exposed via the PAX Live Home Page. More concretely, the PAX versions supports the following extensions: - Definitions with string names. One can search for ASDF:SYSTEMs, PACKAGEs and CLHS sections, glossary entries, format directives, reader macro characters, loop keywords. - Exact or substring matching of the name and the package. - Matching only symbol or string names. On the PAX Live Home Page, one may Browse by Locative Types, which gives access to some of the apropos functionality via the browser without involving Emacs. On the result page: - A DREF-APROPOS form to reproduce the results at the REPL is shown. - One may toggle the EXTERNAL-ONLY and CASE-SENSITIVE boolean arguments. - One may switch between list, and detailed view. The list view only shows the first, bulleted line for each definition, while the detailed view includes the full documentation of definitions with the exception of SECTIONs. - The returned references are presented in two groups: those with non-symbol and those with symbol names. The non-symbol group is sorted by locative type then by name. The symbol group is sorted by name then by locative type. With mgl-pax-apropos-all and mgl-pax-apropos-package being simple convenience functions on top of mgl-pax-apropos, we only discuss the latter in detail here. For the others, see the Elisp docstrings. ##### The STRING Argument of mgl-pax-apropos The STRING argument consists of a name pattern and a DTYPE. The name pattern has the following forms. - :print matches definitions whose names are the string print or a symbol with SYMBOL-NAME print. Vertical bar form as in :|prInt| is also also supported and is useful in when CASE-SENSITIVE is true. - "print" matches definitions whose names contain print as a substring. - print is like the previous, substring matching case. Use this form to save typing if the pattern does not contain spaces and does not start with a colon. - The empty string matches everything. After the name pattern, STRING may contain a DTYPE that the definitions must match. - print t matches definitions with LISP-LOCATIVE-TYPES, which is the default (equivalent to print). - print function matches functions whose names contain print (e.g. CL:PRINT and CL:PPRINT). - :print function is like the previous example but with exact name match (so it matches CL:PRINT but not CL:PPRINT). - print variable matches for example *PRINT-ESCAPE*. - print (or variable function) matches all variables and functions with print in their names. - array (or type (not class)) matches DEFTYPEs and but not CLASSes with the string array in their names. - &nbsp;pax:section (note the leading space) matches all PAX sections (EXTERNAL-ONLY NIL is necessary to see many of them). - print dref:pseudo matches definitions with PSEUDO-LOCATIVE-TYPES such as MGL-PAX:CLHS. - print dref:top matches definitions with all locative types (LOCATIVE-TYPES). ##### The PACKAGE Argument of mgl-pax-apropos When mgl-pax-apropos is invoked with a prefix argument, it prompts for a package pattern among other things. The pattern may be like the following examples. - :none restricts matches to non-symbol names. - :any restricts matches to symbol names. - :cl restricts matches to symbols in the CL package. - :|X Y| is similar to the previous, but the vertical bar syntax allows for spaces in names. - mgl restricts matches to packages whose name contains mgl as a substring. - "x y" is the same as the previous, but the explicit quotes allow for spaces in names. The above examples assume case-insensitive matching. #### PAX Live Home Page When Browsing Live Documentation, the home page provides quick access to documentation of the definitions in the system. In Emacs, when mgl-pax-document is invoked with the empty string, it visits the home page. The home page may also be accessed directly by going to the root page of the web server (if one is started). Here, unless the home page is viewed with w3m, one may directly look up documentation and access Apropos via the input boxes provided. - [function] ENSURE-WEB-SERVER &KEY PORT HYPERSPEC-ROOT Start or update a web server on PORT for Browsing Live Documentation. Returns the base URL of the server (e.g. http://localhost:32790), which goes to the PAX Live Home Page. If the web server is running already (ENSURE-WEB-SERVER) simply returns its base URL. Note that even when using Emacs but Browsing with Other Browsers, the web server is started automatically. When Browsing with w3m, no web server is involved at all. Calling this function explicitly is only needed if the Emacs integration is not used, or to override PORT and HYPERSPEC-ROOT. - If PORT is NIL or 0, then the server will use any free port. - If there is a server already running and PORT is not NIL or 0, then the server is restarted on PORT. - If HYPERSPEC-ROOT is NIL, the HyperSpec pages will be served from any previously provided HYPERSPEC-ROOT or, failing that, from *DOCUMENT-HYPERSPEC-ROOT*. - If HYPERSPEC-ROOT is non-NIL, then pages in the HyperSpec will be served from HYPERSPEC-ROOT. The following command changes the root without affecting the server in any other way: (ensure-web-server :hyperspec-root "/usr/share/doc/hyperspec/") ##### Top-level PAX Sections The PAX Live Home Page lists the top-level PAX sections: those that have no other SECTIONs referencing them (see DEFSECTION). ##### ASDF:SYSTEMs and Related PACKAGEs The PAX Live Home Page lists all ASDF:SYSTEMs and PACKAGEs in the Lisp. For easier overview, the they are grouped based on their SOURCE-LOCATIONs. Two systems are in the same group if the directory of one (i.e. the directory of the .asd file in which it was defined) is the same or is below the other's. A PACKAGE presented under a group of systems, if the SOURCE-LOCATION of the package is below the the top-most directory among the systems in the group. ##### Systemless Packages The PAX Live Home Page lists PACKAGEs unrelated to any ASDF:SYSTEM as systemless. ##### Browse by Locative Types The PAX Live Home Page provides quick links to Apropos result pages for all Basic Locative Types which may have definitions. - [glossary-term] related Two definitions are related if the directory of one's SOURCE-LOCATIONs contains the directory of the other's. ### Markdown Support Markdown in docstrings and titles is processed with the 3BMD library. #### Markdown in Docstrings - Docstrings can be indented in any of the usual styles. PAX normalizes indentation by stripping the longest run of leading spaces common to all non-blank lines except the first. Thus, the following two docstrings are equivalent: (defun foo () "This is indented differently") (defun foo () "This is indented differently") - When Browsing Live Documentation, the page displayed can be of, say, a single function within what would constitute the offline documentation of a library. Because Markdown reference link definitions, for example [Daring Fireball]: http://daringfireball.net/ can be defined anywhere, they wouldn't be resolvable in that case, their use is discouraged. Currently, only reflink definitions within the documentation of the same definition are guaranteed to be resolvable. This is left intentionally vague because the specifics are subject to change. See DEFINE-GLOSSARY-TERM for a better alternative to Markdown reference links. Docstrings of definitions which do not have a Home Section and are not PAX constructs themselves (e.g SECTION, GLOSSARY-TERM, NOTE) are assumed to have been written with no knowledge of PAX and to conform to Markdown only by accident. These docstrings are thus sanitized more aggressively. - Indentation of what looks like blocks of Lisp code is rounded up to a multiple of 4. More precisely, non-zero indented lines between blank lines or the docstring boundaries are reindented if the first non-space character of the first line is an ( or a ; character. - Special HTML characters <& are escaped. - Furthermore, to reduce the chance of inadvertently introducing a Markdown heading, if a line starts with a string of # characters, then the first one is automatically escaped. Thus, the following two docstrings are equivalent: The characters #\Space, #\Tab and #Return are in the whitespace group. The characters #\Space, #\Tab and \#Return are in the whitespace group. #### Markdown in Titles - [glossary-term] title A title is a STRING associated with a definition (e.g. with the TITLE argument of DEFSECTION or DEFINE-GLOSSARY-TERM). Titles are accessible DOCTITLE and processed according to Markdown in Titles. Titles undergo Codification and may be a single paragraph containing explicit Markdown inline code, Markdown emphasis, Markdown images, inline MathJax and HTML entities (e.g. &quot;). Other kinds of Markdown markup and block elements are not allowed. - [function] DOCTITLE OBJECT Return the title of OBJECT if it has one or NIL. For Codification, the title is interpreted in the package returned by DOCSTRING. DOCTITLE can be extended via DOCTITLE*. #### Syntax Highlighting For syntax highlighting, GitHub's fenced code blocks Markdown extension to mark up code blocks with triple backticks is enabled so all you need to do is write: ```elisp (defun foo ()) ``` to get syntactically marked up HTML output. Copy src/style.css from PAX and you are set. The language tag, elisp in this example, is optional and defaults to common-lisp. See the documentation of 3BMD and Colorize for the details. #### MathJax Displaying pretty mathematics between in TeX format is supported via MathJax. - Inline It can be done inline (within a paragraph): Pretty, eh? $\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx=\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$ Yes. which is displayed as Pretty, eh? $\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx=\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$ Yes. To avoid rendering between $5 and $6 with inline math, both the opening and the closing $ character must be followed / preceded by a non-space character. This agrees with Pandoc. Alternatively, the $`x_0`$ syntax may be used (renders as $`x_0`$), which has no restriction on spacing. - Block The $$ is supported as a block element: Pretty, eh? $$\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx=\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$$ Yes. which will be rendered in its own paragraph: Pretty, eh? $$\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx=\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$$ Yes. $$ is also legal to use inline, but it's not recommended as it gets rendered inline on GitHub but as display math in PDF Output. MathJax will leave inline code (e.g. those between single backticks) and code blocks (triple backtricks) alone. Outside code, use <span>$</span> to scare MathJax off. Escaping all those backslashes in TeX fragments embedded in Lisp strings can be a pain. Pythonic String Reader can help with that. ### Codification - [variable] *DOCUMENT-UPPERCASE-IS-CODE* T When true, interesting names extracted from codifiable words marked up as code with backticks. For example, this docstring "T PRINT CLASSes SECTION *PACKAGE* MGL-PAX ASDF CaMeL Capital" is equivalent to this: "`T` `PRINT` `CLASS`es `SECTION` `*PACKAGE*` `MGL-PAX` `ASDF` CaMel Capital" and renders as T PRINT CLASSes SECTION MGL-PAX ASDF CaMel Capital where the links are added due to *DOCUMENT-LINK-CODE*. To suppress codification, add a backslash to the beginning of the a codifiable word or right after the leading * if it would otherwise be parsed as Markdown emphasis: "\\SECTION *\\PACKAGE*" The number of backslashes is doubled above because that's how the example looks in a docstring. Note that the backslash is discarded even if *DOCUMENT-UPPERCASE-IS-CODE* is false. - [glossary-term] codifiable A word is codifiable if - it has a single uppercase character (e.g. it's T) and no lowercase characters at all, or - there is more than one uppercase character and no lowercase characters between them (e.g. CLASSes, nonREADable, CLASS-NAMEs but not Classes or aTe. - [glossary-term] interesting A name is interesting if - it names a symbol external to its package, or - it is at least 3 characters long and names an interned symbol, or - it names a Local Definition. See Package and Readtable. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-DOWNCASE-UPPERCASE-CODE* NIL If true, then all Markdown inline code (e.g. `code`, which renders as code) – including Codification – which has no lowercase characters is downcased in the output. Characters of literal strings in the code may be of any case. If this variable is :ONLY-IN-MARKUP and the output format does not support markup (e.g. it's :PLAIN), then no downcasing is performed. For example, `(PRINT "Hello")` is downcased to `(print "Hello")` because it only contains uppercase characters outside the string. However, `MiXed "RESULTS"` is not altered because it has lowercase characters. If the first two characters are backslashes, then no downcasing is performed, in addition to Escaping Autolinking. Use this to mark inline code that's not Lisp. Press `\\M-.` in Emacs. ### Linking PAX supports linking to definitions either with explicit Reflinks or with Autolinks. When generating offline documentation, only the definitions in DOCUMENTABLE may be linkable, but when Browsing Live Documentation, everything is linkable as documentation is generated on-demand. Many examples in this section link to standard Common Lisp definitions. In the offline case, these will link to external URLs, while in the live case to disambiguation pages that list the definition in the running Lisp and in the HyperSpec. Invoking M-. on WORD or NAME in any of the following examples will disambiguate based on the textual context, determining the locative. This is because navigation and linking use the same Parsing algorithm, although linking is a bit more strict about trimming, depluralization, and it performs Filtering Links. On the other hand, M-. cannot visit the CLHS references because there are no associated source locations. - [glossary-term] stable printed locative The Link Format relies on definitions having a unique textual representation that doesn't change. More concretely, if PRIN1 under WITH-STANDARD-IO-SYNTAX but with *PRINT-READABLY* NIL produces the same unique string deterministically, then linking to definitions works even with non-readable locatives. The uniqueness condition requires that if two definitions are different under XREF=, then their textual representations are also different. On the other hand, for example, a method involving an EQL specializer with an object printed with PRINT-UNREADABLE-OBJECT :IDENTITY T does not produce a stable string and links will break. #### Reflink The Markdown reference link syntax [label][id] is repurposed for linking to definitions. In the following, we discuss the various forms of reflinks. ##### Specific Reflink Format: [ WORD ][ LOCATIVE ] The first name in WORD (with depluralization) that forms a valid DREF with LOCATIVE is determined, and that definition is linked to. If there is no such DREF, then an UNRESOLVABLE-REFLINK warning is signalled. Examples: - [`EQL`][type] renders as EQL. - [EQL][type] renders as EQL. The Markdown link definition (i.e. type above) needs no backticks to mark it as code, but here and below, the second example relies on *DOCUMENT-UPPERCASE-IS-CODE* being true. ##### Specific Reflink with Text Format: [LINK TEXT][ NAME LOCATIVE ] If NAME and LOCATIVE form a valid DREF, then that definition is linked to with link text LINK TEXT. If there is no such DREF, then an UNRESOLVABLE-REFLINK warning is signalled. In this form, if NAME starts with #\", then it's read as a string, else as a symbol. Examples: - [see this][eql type] renders as see this. - [see this]["MGL-PAX" package] renders as see this. ##### Unspecific Reflink Format: [ WORD ][] The first name in WORD (with depluralization, symbols only) that has some DEFINITIONS is determined, and those definitions are linked to. If no name with any definition is found, then an UNRESOLVABLE-REFLINK warning is signalled. Examples: - single link: [PRINT][] renders as PRINT. - multiple links: [EQL][] renders as EQL. - no definitions: [BAD-NAME][] renders as BAD-NAME. ##### Unspecific Reflink with Text Format: [LINK TEXT][ NAME ] The DEFINITIONS of NAME are determined, and those definitions are linked to. If NAME has no definitions, then an UNRESOLVABLE-REFLINK warning is signalled. In this form, if NAME starts with #\", then it's read as a string, else as as symbol. Examples: - [see this][print] renders as see this. - [see this][eql] renders as see this. ##### Markdown Reflink Format: [label][id] This is a normal Markdown reference link if id is not a valid locative. - [see this][user-defined] renders unchanged. (dref:dref 'user-defined 'locative) .. debugger invoked on LOCATE-ERROR: .. Could not locate USER-DEFINED LOCATIVE. .. USER-DEFINED is not a valid locative type or locative alias. (document "[see this][user-defined]" :format :markdown) .. [see this][user-defined] .. Use URLs with DEFINE-GLOSSARY-TERM as a better alternative to Markdown reference links (see Markdown in Docstrings). ##### Unresolvable Links - [condition] UNRESOLVABLE-REFLINK WARNING When DOCUMENT encounters a Reflink that looks like a PAX construct but has no matching definition, it signals an UNRESOLVABLE-REFLINK warning. - If the OUTPUT-REFLINK restart is invoked, then no warning is printed and the Markdown link is left unchanged. MUFFLE-WARNING is equivalent to OUTPUT-REFLINK. - If the OUTPUT-LABEL restart is invoked, then no warning is printed and the Markdown link is replaced by its label. For example, [NONEXISTENT][function] becomes NONEXISTENT. - If the warning is not handled, then it is printed to *ERROR-OUTPUT*, and it behaves as if OUTPUT-LABEL was invoked. - [function] OUTPUT-REFLINK &OPTIONAL CONDITION Invoke the OUTPUT-REFLINK restart. See UNRESOLVABLE-REFLINK. - [function] OUTPUT-LABEL &OPTIONAL CONDITION Invoke the OUTPUT-LABEL restart. See UNRESOLVABLE-REFLINK. #### Autolink Markdown inline code automatically links to the corresponding definitions without having to use Reflinks. This works especially well in conjunction with Codification. The following examples assume that *DOCUMENT-UPPERCASE-IS-CODE* is true. If that's not the case, explicit backticks are required on WORD (but not on LOCATIVE). ##### Specific Autolink Format: WORD LOCATIVE or LOCATIVE WORD The first name in WORD (with depluralization) that forms a valid DREF with LOCATIVE is determined, and that definition is linked to. If no such name is found, then Unspecific Autolink is attempted. Examples: - PRINT function renders as PRINT function. - type EQL renders as type EQL. - type EQL function renders as type EQL function. If LOCATIVE has spaces, then it needs to be marked up as code, too. For example, DREF-NAME `(reader dref)` renders as DREF-NAME (reader dref). ##### Unspecific Autolink Format: WORD The first name in WORD (with depluralization, symbols only) that has some DEFINITIONS is determined, and those definitions are linked to. If no such name is found or the autolink to this name is suppressed (see below), then WORD is left unchanged. If a locative is found before or after WORD, then Specific Autolink is tried first. Examples: - PRINT renders as PRINT. - EQL renders as EQL. Unspecific Autolinking is suppressed if the name found has a Local Definition or was linked to before in the same docstring: - "My other CAR is also a CAR" renders as "My other CAR is also a CAR". - "[COS][] and COS" renders as "COS and COS". - "[EQL][type] and EQL" renders as "EQL and EQL". - "EQ and the EQ function" renders as "EQ and the EQ function". Unspecific Autolinking to T and NIL is also suppressed (see *DOCUMENT-LINK-TO-HYPERSPEC*): - "T and NIL" renders as "T and NIL". As an exception, a single link (be it either a Specific Link or an unambiguous Unspecific Link) to a SECTION or GLOSSARY-TERM is not suppressed to allow their titles to be displayed properly: - "@NAME and @NAME" renders as "name and name". ##### Escaping Autolinking In the common case, when *DOCUMENT-UPPERCASE-IS-CODE* is true, prefixing an uppercase word with a backslash prevents it from being codified and thus also prevents Autolinking form kicking in. For example, \DOCUMENT renders as DOCUMENT. If it should be marked up as code but not autolinked, the backslash must be within backticks like this: `\DOCUMENT` This renders as DOCUMENT. Alternatively, the DISLOCATED or the ARGUMENT locative may be used as in [DOCUMENT][dislocated]. #### Linking to the HyperSpec - [variable] *DOCUMENT-LINK-TO-HYPERSPEC* T If true, consider definitions found in the Common Lisp HyperSpec for linking. For example, - PRINT renders as PRINT. In offline documentation, this would be a link to the hyperspec unless #'PRINT in the running Lisp is DOCUMENTABLE. When Browsing Live Documentation, everything is linkable, so the generated link will go to a disambiguation page that lists the definition in the Lisp and in the HyperSpec. Locatives work as expected (see *DOCUMENT-LINK-CODE*): FIND-IF links to FIND-IF, FUNCTION links to FUNCTION, and [FUNCTION][type] links to FUNCTION. Unspecific Autolinking to T and NIL is suppressed. If desired, use Reflinks such as [T][] (that links to T) or [T][constant] (that links to T). Note that linking explicitly with the CLHS locative is not subject to the value of this variable. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-HYPERSPEC-ROOT* "http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/" A URL of the Common Lisp HyperSpec. The default value is the canonical location. When invoked from Emacs, the Elisp variable common-lisp-hyperspec-root is in effect. #### Linking to Sections The following variables control how to generate section numbering, table of contents and navigation links. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-LINK-SECTIONS* T When true, HTML anchors and PDF destinations are generated before the headings (e.g. of sections), which allows the table of contents to contain links and also code-like references to sections (like @FOO-MANUAL) to be translated to links with the TITLE being the link text. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-MAX-NUMBERING-LEVEL* 3 A non-negative integer. In their hierarchy, sections on levels less than this value get numbered in the format of 3.1.2. Setting it to 0 turns numbering off. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-MAX-TABLE-OF-CONTENTS-LEVEL* 3 An integer that determines the depth of the table of contents. - If negative, then no table of contents is generated. - If non-negative, and there are multiple top-level sections on a page, then they are listed at the top of the page. - If positive, then for each top-level section a table of contents is printed after its heading, which includes a nested tree of section titles whose depth is limited by this value. If *DOCUMENT-LINK-SECTIONS* is true, then the tables will link to the sections. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-TEXT-NAVIGATION* NIL If true, then before each heading a line is printed with links to the previous, parent and next section. Needs *DOCUMENT-LINK-SECTIONS* to be on to work. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-FANCY-HTML-NAVIGATION* T If true and the output format is HTML, then headings get a navigation component that consists of links to the previous, parent, next section, a self-link, and a link to the definition in the source code if available (see :SOURCE-URI-FN in DOCUMENT). This component is normally hidden, it is visible only when the mouse is over the heading. Has no effect if *DOCUMENT-LINK-SECTIONS* is false. #### Filtering Links - [variable] *DOCUMENT-LINK-CODE* T Whether definitions of things other than SECTIONs are allowed to be linkable. - [glossary-term] linkable When a reference is encountered to definition D while processing documentation for some page C, we say that definition D is linkable (from C) if - D denotes a SECTION and *DOCUMENT-LINK-SECTIONS* is true, or - D does not denote a SECTION and *DOCUMENT-LINK-CODE* is true ... and - We are Browsing Live Documentation, or - D is an external definition (CLHS or denotes a GLOSSARY-TERM with a URL), or - D's page is C, or - D's page is relativizable to C. In the above, D's page is the last of the pages in the DOCUMENTABLE to which D's documentation is written (see :OBJECTS in PAGES), and we say that a page is relativizable to another if it is possible to construct a relative link between their :URI-FRAGMENTs. ##### Specific Link Specific links are those Reflinks and Autolinks that have a single locative and therefore at most a single matching definition. These are Specific Reflink, Specific Reflink with Text and Specific Autolink. A specific link to a linkable definition produces a link in the output. If the definition is not linkable, then the output will contain only what would otherwise be the link text. ##### Unspecific Link Unspecific links are those Reflinks and Autolinks that do not specify a locative and match all definitions with a name. These are Unspecific Reflink, Unspecific Reflink with Text and Unspecific Autolink. To make the links predictable and manageable in number, the following steps are taken. 1. Definitions that are not symbol-based (i.e. whose DREF-NAME is not a symbol) are filtered out to prevent unrelated PACKAGEs, ASDF:SYSTEMs and CLHS sections from cluttering the documentation without the control provided by importing symbols. 2. All references with LOCATIVE-TYPE LOCATIVE are filtered out. 3. Non-linkable definitions are removed. 4. If the definitions include a GENERIC-FUNCTION, then all definitions with LOCATIVE-TYPE METHOD, ACCESSOR, READER and WRITER are removed to avoid linking to a possibly large number of methods. If at most a single definition remains, then the output is the same as with a Specific Link. If multiple definitions remain, then the link text is output followed by a number of numbered links, one to each definition. #### Link Format The following variables control various aspects of links and URLs. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-URL-VERSIONS* (2 1) A list of versions of PAX URL formats to support in the generated documentation. The first in the list is used to generate links. PAX emits HTML anchors before the documentation of SECTIONs (see Linking to Sections) and other things (see Linking). For the function FOO, in the current version (version 2), the anchor is <a id="MGL-PAX:FOO%20FUNCTION">, and its URL will end with #MGL-PAX:FOO%20FUNCTION. Note that to make the URL independent of whether a symbol is internal or external to their SYMBOL-PACKAGE, single colon is printed where a double colon would be expected. Package and symbol names are both printed verbatim except for escaping colons and spaces with a backslash. For exported symbols with no funny characters, this coincides with how PRIN1 would print the symbol, while having the benefit of making the URL independent of the Lisp printer's escaping strategy and producing human-readable output for mixed-case symbols. No such promises are made for non-ASCII characters, and their URLs may change in future versions. Locatives are printed with PRIN1. Version 1 is based on the more strict HTML4 standard and the id of FOO is "x-28MGL-PAX-3A-3AFOO-20FUNCTION-29". This is supported by GitHub-flavoured Markdown. Version 2 has minimal clutter and is obviously preferred. However, in order not to break external links, by default, both anchors are generated. Let's understand the generated Markdown. (defun foo (x)) (document #'foo :format :markdown) => ("<a id=\"x-28MGL-PAX-3AFOO-20FUNCTION-29\"></a> <a id=\"MGL-PAX:FOO%20FUNCTION\"></a> - [function] **FOO** *X* ") (let ((*document-url-versions* '(1))) (document #'foo :format :markdown)) => ("<a id=\"x-28MGL-PAX-3AFOO-20FUNCTION-29\"></a> - [function] **FOO** *X* ") - [variable] *DOCUMENT-MIN-LINK-HASH-LENGTH* 4 Recall that Markdown reference links (like [label][id]) are used for Linking. It is desirable to have ids that are short to maintain legibility of the generated Markdown, but also stable to reduce the spurious diffs in the generated documentation, which can be a pain in a version control system. Clearly, there is a tradeoff here. This variable controls how many characters of the MD5 sum of the full link id (the reference as a string) are retained. If collisions are found due to the low number of characters, then the length of the hash of the colliding reference is increased. This variable has no effect on the HTML generated from Markdown, but it can make Markdown output more readable. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-BASE-URL* NIL When *DOCUMENT-BASE-URL* is non-NIL, this is prepended to all Markdown relative URLs. It must be a valid URL without no query and fragment parts (that is, http://lisp.org/doc/ but not http://lisp.org/doc?a=1 or http://lisp.org/doc#fragment). Note that intra-page links using only URL fragments (e.g. and explicit HTML links (e.g. <a href="...">) in Markdown are not affected. ### Local Definition While documentation is generated for a definition, that definition is considered local. Other local definitions may also be established. Local definitions inform Codification through interesting names and affect Unspecific Autolinking. (defun foo (x) "FOO adds one to X." (1+ x) In this example, while the docstring of FOO is being processed, the global definition (DREF 'FOO 'FUNCTION) is also considered local, which suppresses linking FOO in the FOO's docstring back to its definition. If FOO has other definitions, Unspecific Autolinking to those is also suppressed. Furthermore, the purely local definition (DREF 'X 'ARGUMENT) is established, causing the argument name X to be codified because X is now interesting. See DOCUMENTING-DEFINITION and WITH-DISLOCATED-NAMES in Extending DOCUMENT. ### Overview of Escaping Let's recap how escaping Codification, downcasing, and Linking works. - One backslash in front of a word turns codification off. Use this to prevent codification words such as DOCUMENT, which is all uppercase hence codifiable, and it names an exported symbol hence it is interesting. - One backslash right after an opening backtick turns autolinking off. - Two backslashes right after an opening backtick turns autolinking and downcasing off. Use this for things that are not Lisp code but which need to be in a monospace font. In the following examples capital C/D/A letters mark the presence, and a/b/c the absence of codification, downcasing, and autolinking assuming all these features are enabled by *DOCUMENT-UPPERCASE-IS-CODE*, *DOCUMENT-DOWNCASE-UPPERCASE-CODE*, and *DOCUMENT-LINK-CODE*. DOCUMENT => [`document`][1234] (CDA) \DOCUMENT => DOCUMENT (cda) `\DOCUMENT` => `document` (CDa) `\\DOCUMENT` => `DOCUMENT` (CdA) [DOCUMENT][] => [`document`][1234] (CDA) [\DOCUMENT][] => [DOCUMENT][1234] (cdA) [`\DOCUMENT`][] => [`document`][1234] (CDA) * [`\\DOCUMENT`][] => [`DOCUMENT`][1234] (CdA) [DOCUMENT][dislocated] => `document` (CDa) Note that in the example marked with *, the single backslash, that would normally turn autolinking off, is ignored because it is in an explicit link. ### Output Formats - [variable] *DOCUMENT-MARK-UP-SIGNATURES* T When true, some things such as function names and arglists are rendered as bold and italic. In HTML Output and PDF Output, locative types become links to sources (if :SOURCE-URI-FN is provided, see PAGES), and the symbol becomes a self-link for your permalinking pleasure. For example, a reference is rendered in Markdown roughly as: - [function] foo x y With this option on, the above becomes: - [function] **foo** *x y* Also, in HTML **foo** will be a link to that very entry and [function] may turn into a link to sources. #### Plain Output This is the default :FORMAT of DOCUMENT, intended to be a replacement for CL:DOCUMENTATION. :PLAIN (short for plain text) is very similar to :MARKDOWN, but most of the markup that would make reading in, say, the REPL unpleasant is removed. - Markup for Markdown emphasis, Markdown inline code, Markdown reference links and fenced code blocks is stripped from the output. - No link anchors are emitted. - No section numbering. - No table of contents. #### Markdown Output By default, DREFs are documented in the following format. - [<locative-type>] <name> <arglist> <docstring> The line with the bullet is printed with DOCUMENTING-DEFINITION. The docstring is processed with DOCUMENT-DOCSTRING while Local Definitions established with WITH-DISLOCATED-NAMES are in effect for all variables locally bound in a definition with ARGLIST, and *PACKAGE* is bound to the second return value of DOCSTRING. With this default format, PAX supports all locative types, but for some Basic Locative Types defined in DRef and the PAX Locatives, special provisions have been made. - For definitions with a VARIABLE or CONSTANT locative, their initform is printed as their arglist. The initform is the INITFORM argument of the locative if provided, or the global symbol value of their name. If no INITFORM is provided, and the symbol is globally unbound, then no arglist is printed. When the printed initform is too long, it is truncated. - Depending of what the SETF locative refers to, the ARGLIST of the setf expander, setf function, or the method signature is printed as with the METHOD locative. - For definitions with a METHOD locative, the arglist printed is the method signature, which consists of the locative's QUALIFIERS and SPECIALIZERS appended. - For definitions with an ACCESSOR, READER or WRITER locative, the class on which they are specialized is printed as their arglist. - For definitions with a STRUCTURE-ACCESSOR locative, the arglist printed is the locative's CLASS-NAME argument if provided. - For definitions with a CLASS locative, the arglist printed is the list of public superclasses with STANDARD-OBJECT and CONDITION omitted. - For definitions with a STRUCTURE locative, the arglist printed is the list of public superclasses with STRUCTURE-OBJECT omitted. - For definitions with a CONDITION locative, the arglist printed is the list of public superclasses with STANDARD-OBJECT and CONDITION omitted. - For definitions with a ASDF:SYSTEM locative, their most important slots are printed as an unnumbered list. - For definitions with the LOCATIVE locative type, their LOCATIVE-TYPE-DIRECT-SUPERS and LOCATIVE-TYPE-DIRECT-SUBS are printed. - When documentation is being generated for a definition with the SECTION locative, a new (sub)section is opened (see WITH-HEADING), within which documentation for its each of its SECTION-ENTRIES is generated. A fresh line is printed after all entries except the last. - For definitions with a GLOSSARY-TERM locative, no arglist is printed, and if non-NIL, GLOSSARY-TERM-TITLE is printed as name. - For definitions with a GO locative, its LOCATIVE-ARGS are printed as its arglist, along with a redirection message. - See the INCLUDE locative. - For definitions with a CLHS locative, the LOCATIVE-ARGS are printed as the arglist. For CLHS SECTIONs, the title is included in the arglist. - For definitions with an UNKNOWN locative, the LOCATIVE-ARGS are printed as the arglist. There is no docstring. - [glossary-term] public superclasses The public superclasses of a class are tightest envelope of superclasses with names exported from some package. This envelope is constructed by recursing depth-first into the superclass hierarchy. If the name of the superclass currently processed is exported from any package, then it is collected as a public superclass, and we do not recurse into its superclasses. #### PDF Output When invoked with :FORMAT :PDF, DOCUMENT generates Markdown Output and converts it to PDF with Pandoc, which in turn uses [LaTeX](https://www.latex-project.org/). Make sure that they are installed. (with-open-file (s "x.pdf" :direction :output :if-exists :supersede :if-does-not-exist :create) (pax:document "Hello, World!" :stream s :format :pdf)) To see how the output looks like, visit pax-manual-v0.4.1.pdf and dref-manual-v0.4.1.pdf. [pax-manual-sample]: http://quotenil.com/blog-files/pax-manual-v0.4.1.pdf [dref-manual-sample]: http://quotenil.com/blog-files/dref-manual-v0.4.1.pdf PDF output is similar to *DOCUMENT-HTML-DEFAULT-STYLE* :CHARTER without the off-white tint and with coloured instead of underlined links. The latter is because underlining interferes with hyphenation in LaTeX. As in HTML output, locative types link to the respective definition in the sources on GitHub (see MAKE-GIT-SOURCE-URI-FN). Note that linking from one PDF to another is currently not supported due to the lack of consistent support in PDF viewers. Therefore, such links are replaced by their label or the title if any (e.g. of a SECTION or GLOSSARY-TERM). The generation of Markdown is subject to the standard variables (again see DOCUMENT). The Markdown to PDF conversion can be customized with the following variables. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-PANDOC-PROGRAM* "pandoc" The name of the Pandoc binary. It need not be an absolute pathname as PATH is searched. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-PANDOC-PDF-OPTIONS* (("-V" "papersize=a4") ("-V" "margin-left=1.03in") ("-V" "margin-right=1.03in") ("-V" "margin-top=1.435in") ("-V" "margin-bottom=1.435in") ("-V" "fontfamily=XCharter") ("-V" "fontsize=11pt") ("-V" "colorlinks=true") ("-V" "linkcolor=blue") ("-V" "urlcolor=Maroon") ("-V" "toccolor=blue") "--verbose") The command-line options to invoke *DOCUMENT-PANDOC-PROGRAM* with. For ease of manipulation, related options are grouped into sublists, but the entire nested list is flattened to get the list of options to pass to Pandoc. If --verbose is specified, then in addition to Pandoc logging LaTeX sources, PAX will log to *ERROR-OUTPUT* the Markdown that it converts to PDF via LaTeX. The Markdown includes *DOCUMENT-PANDOC-PDF-HEADER-INCLUDES* and *DOCUMENT-PANDOC-PDF-METADATA-BLOCK*. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-PANDOC-PDF-HEADER-INCLUDES* "<too messy to include>" LaTeX code (a string) to include in the preamble via [header-includes](https://pandoc.org/MANUAL.html#layout). The default includes have no configuration knobs. Look at the value to see how to customize it. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-PANDOC-PDF-METADATA-BLOCK* "" A Pandoc YAML metadata block as a string. Concatenate to this string to customize it. #### Dummy Output When the FORMAT argument of DOCUMENT is NIL, no output is generated, but Transcript Consistency Checking is still performed. Use this feature to quickly test documentation examples. For example, in Try the test would look like this: (try:signals-not (transcription-consistency-error) (document ... :format nil)) ### Documentation Generation Implementation Notes Documentation Generation is supported on ABCL, AllegroCL, CLISP, CCL, CMUCL, ECL and SBCL, but their outputs may differ due to the lack of some introspective capability. SBCL generates complete output. see ARGLIST, DOCSTRING and SOURCE-LOCATION for implementation notes. In addition, CLISP does not support the ambiguous case of Browsing Live Documentation because the current implementation relies on Swank to list definitions of symbols (as VARIABLE, FUNCTION, etc), and that simply doesn't work. ### Utilities for Generating Documentation Two convenience functions are provided to serve the common case of having an ASDF system with some readmes and a directory with for the HTML documentation and the default CSS stylesheet. - [function] UPDATE-ASDF-SYSTEM-READMES OBJECT ASDF-SYSTEM &KEY (URL-VERSIONS '(1)) (FORMATS '(:MARKDOWN)) Convenience function to generate up to two readme files in the directory holding the ASDF-SYSTEM definition. OBJECT is passed on to DOCUMENT. If :MARKDOWN is in FORMATS, then README.md is generated with anchors, links, inline code, and other markup added. Not necessarily the easiest on the eye in an editor but looks good on GitHub. If :PLAIN is in FORMATS, then README is generated, which is optimized for reading in text format. It has less cluttery markup and no Autolinking. Example usage: (update-asdf-system-readmes @pax-manual :mgl-pax :formats '(:markdown :plain)) Note that *DOCUMENT-URL-VERSIONS* is bound to URL-VERSIONS, which defaults to using the uglier, version 1 style of URL for the sake of GitHub. #### HTML Output - [function] UPDATE-ASDF-SYSTEM-HTML-DOCS SECTIONS ASDF-SYSTEM &KEY PAGES (TARGET-DIR (ASDF/SYSTEM:SYSTEM-RELATIVE-PATHNAME ASDF-SYSTEM "doc/")) (UPDATE-CSS-P T) (STYLE *DOCUMENT-HTML-DEFAULT-STYLE*) Generate pretty HTML documentation for a single ASDF system, possibly linking to GitHub. If UPDATE-CSS-P, copy the STYLE files to TARGET-DIR (see *DOCUMENT-HTML-DEFAULT-STYLE*). Example usage: (update-asdf-system-html-docs @pax-manual :mgl-pax) The same, linking to the sources on GitHub: (update-asdf-system-html-docs @pax-manual :mgl-pax :pages `((:objects (,mgl-pax::@pax-manual) :source-uri-fn ,(make-git-source-uri-fn :mgl-pax "https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax")))) See the following variables, which control HTML generation. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-HTML-DEFAULT-STYLE* :DEFAULT The HTML style to use. It's either STYLE is either :DEFAULT or :CHARTER. The :DEFAULT CSS stylesheet relies on the default fonts (sans-serif, serif, monospace), while :CHARTER bundles some fonts for a more controlled look. The value of this variable affects the default style of UPDATE-ASDF-SYSTEM-HTML-DOCS. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-HTML-MAX-NAVIGATION-TABLE-OF-CONTENTS-LEVEL* NIL NIL or a non-negative integer. If non-NIL, it overrides *DOCUMENT-MAX-NUMBERING-LEVEL* in the dynamic HTML table of contents on the left of the page. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-HTML-LANG* "en" The value for the html element's xml:lang and lang attributes in the generated HTML. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-HTML-CHARSET* "UTF-8" The value for charset attribute of the <meta http-equiv='Content-Type' content='text/html'> element in the generated HTML. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-HTML-HEAD* NIL Stuff to be included in the <head> of the generated HTML. - If NIL, nothing is included. - If a STRING, then it is written to the HTML output as is without any escaping. - If a function designator, then it is called with a single argument, the HTML stream, where it must write the output. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-HTML-SIDEBAR* NIL Stuff to be included in the HTML sidebar. - If NIL, a default sidebar is generated, with *DOCUMENT-HTML-TOP-BLOCKS-OF-LINKS*, followed by the dynamic table of contents, and *DOCUMENT-HTML-BOTTOM-BLOCKS-OF-LINKS*. - If a STRING, then it is written to the HTML output as is without any escaping. - If a function designator, then it is called with a single argument, the HTML stream, where it must write the output. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-HTML-TOP-BLOCKS-OF-LINKS* NIL A list of blocks of links to be displayed on the sidebar on the left, above the table of contents. A block is of the form (&KEY TITLE ID LINKS), where TITLE will be displayed at the top of the block in a HTML DIV with ID followed by the links. LINKS is a list of (URI LABEL) elements, where URI maybe a string or an object being DOCUMENTed or a REFERENCE thereof. - [variable] *DOCUMENT-HTML-BOTTOM-BLOCKS-OF-LINKS* NIL Like *DOCUMENT-HTML-TOP-BLOCKS-OF-LINKS*, only it is displayed below the table of contents. #### GitHub Workflow It is generally recommended to commit generated readmes (see UPDATE-ASDF-SYSTEM-READMES), so that users have something to read without reading the code and sites like GitHub can display them. HTML documentation can also be committed, but there is an issue with that: when linking to the sources (see MAKE-GIT-SOURCE-URI-FN), the commit id is in the link. This means that code changes need to be committed first, and only then can HTML documentation be regenerated and committed in a followup commit. The second issue is that GitHub is not very good at serving HTML files from the repository itself (and [http://htmlpreview.github.io](http://htmlpreview.github.io) chokes on links to the sources). The recommended workflow is to use [gh-pages](https://pages.github.com/), which can be made relatively painless with the git worktree command. The gist of it is to make the doc/ directory a checkout of the branch named gh-pages. There is a [good description](http://sangsoonam.github.io/2019/02/08/using-git-worktree-to-deploy-github-pages.html) of this general process. Two commits are needed still, but it is somewhat less painful. This way the HTML documentation will be available at http://<username>.github.io/<repo-name> It is probably a good idea to add sections like the Links and Systems section to allow jumping between the repository and the gh-pages site. - [function] MAKE-GITHUB-SOURCE-URI-FN ASDF-SYSTEM GITHUB-URI &KEY GIT-VERSION This function is a backward-compatibility wrapper around MAKE-GIT-SOURCE-URI-FN, which supersedes MAKE-GITHUB-SOURCE-URI-FN. All arguments are passed on to MAKE-GIT-SOURCE-URI-FN, leaving URI-FORMAT-STRING at its default, which is suitable for GitHub. - [function] MAKE-GIT-SOURCE-URI-FN ASDF-SYSTEM GIT-FORGE-URI &KEY GIT-VERSION (URI-FORMAT-STRING "~A/blob/~A/~A#L~S") Return an object suitable as :SOURCE-URI-FN of a page spec (see the PAGES argument of DOCUMENT). The function looks at the source location of the object passed to it, and if the location is found, the path is made relative to the top-level directory of the git checkout containing the file of the ASDF-SYSTEM and finally an URI pointing to your git forge (such as GitHub) is returned. A warning is signalled whenever the source location lookup fails or if the source location points to a directory not below the directory of ASDF-SYSTEM. If GIT-FORGE-URI is "https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax/" and GIT-VERSION is "master", then the returned URI may look like this: https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax/blob/master/src/pax-early.lisp#L12 If GIT-VERSION is NIL, then an attempt is made to determine to current commit id from the .git in the directory holding ASDF-SYSTEM. If no .git directory is found, then no links to the git forge will be generated. URI-FORMAT-STRING is a CL:FORMAT control string for four arguments: - GIT-FORGE-URI, - GIT-VERSION, - the relative path to the file of the source location of the reference, - and the line number. The default value of URI-FORMAT-STRING is for GitHub. If using a non-standard git forge, such as Sourcehut or GitLab, simply pass a suitable URI-FORMAT-STRING matching the URI scheme of your forge. #### PAX World PAX World is a registry of documents, which can generate cross-linked HTML documentation pages for all the registered documents. There is an official [PAX World](https://melisgl.github.io/mgl-pax-world/). - [function] REGISTER-DOC-IN-PAX-WORLD NAME SECTIONS PAGE-SPECS Register SECTIONS and PAGE-SPECS under NAME (a symbol) in PAX World. By default, UPDATE-PAX-WORLD generates documentation for all of these. SECTIONS and PAGE-SPECS must be lists of SECTIONs and PAGE-SPECs (SEE DOCUMENT) or designators of function of no arguments that return such lists. For example, this is how PAX registers itself: (defun pax-sections () (list @pax-manual)) (defun pax-pages () `((:objects ,(pax-sections) :source-uri-fn ,(make-git-source-uri-fn :mgl-pax "https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax")))) (register-doc-in-pax-world :pax 'pax-sections 'pax-pages) - [function] UPDATE-PAX-WORLD &KEY (DOCS *REGISTERED-PAX-WORLD-DOCS*) DIR UPDATE-CSS-P (STYLE *DOCUMENT-HTML-DEFAULT-STYLE*) Generate HTML documentation for all DOCS. Files are created in DIR ((asdf:system-relative-pathname :mgl-pax "world/") by default if DIR is NIL). DOCS is a list of entries of the form (NAME SECTIONS PAGE-SPECS). The default for DOCS is all the sections and pages registered with REGISTER-DOC-IN-PAX-WORLD. In the absence of :HEADER-FN :FOOTER-FN, :OUTPUT, every spec in PAGE-SPECS is augmented with HTML headers, footers and output location specifications (based on the name of the section). If necessary a default page spec is created for every section. ## Transcripts What are transcripts for? When writing a tutorial, one often wants to include a REPL session with maybe a few defuns and a couple of forms whose output or return values are shown. Also, in a function's docstring an example call with concrete arguments and return values speaks volumes. A transcript is a text that looks like a REPL session, but which has a light markup for printed output and return values, while no markup (i.e. prompt) for Lisp forms. PAX transcripts may include output and return values of all forms, or only selected ones. In either case, the transcript itself can be easily generated from the source code. The main worry associated with including examples in the documentation is that they tend to get out-of-sync with the code. This is solved by being able to parse back and update transcripts. In fact, this is exactly what happens during documentation generation with PAX. Code sections tagged with cl-transcript are retranscribed and checked for consistency (that is, no difference in output or return values). If the consistency check fails, an error is signalled that includes a reference to the object being documented. Going beyond documentation, transcript consistency checks can be used for writing simple tests in a very readable form. For example: (+ 1 2) => 3 (values (princ :hello) (list 1 2)) .. HELLO => :HELLO => (1 2) All in all, transcripts are a handy tool especially when combined with the Emacs support to regenerate them and with PYTHONIC-STRING-READER's triple-quoted strings, that allow one to work with nested strings with less noise. The triple-quote syntax can be enabled with: (in-readtable pythonic-string-syntax) ### Transcribing with Emacs Typical transcript usage from within Emacs is simple: add a Lisp form to a docstring or comment at any indentation level. Move the cursor right after the end of the form as if you were to evaluate it with C-x C-e. The cursor is marked by #\^: This is part of a docstring. ```cl-transcript (values (princ :hello) (list 1 2))^ ``` Note that the use of fenced code blocks with the language tag cl-transcript is only to tell PAX to perform consistency checks at documentation generation time. Now invoke the Elisp function mgl-pax-transcribe where the cursor is, and the fenced code block from the docstring becomes: (values (princ :hello) (list 1 2)) .. HELLO => :HELLO => (1 2) ^ Then you change the printed message and add a comment to the second return value: (values (princ :hello-world) (list 1 2)) .. HELLO => :HELLO => (1 ;; This value is arbitrary. 2) When generating the documentation you get a TRANSCRIPTION-CONSISTENCY-ERROR because the printed output and the first return value changed, so you regenerate the documentation by marking the region bounded by #\| and the cursor at #\^ in the example: |(values (princ :hello-world) (list 1 2)) .. HELLO => :HELLO => (1 ;; This value is arbitrary. 2) ^ then invoke the Elisp function mgl-pax-retranscribe-region to get: (values (princ :hello-world) (list 1 2)) .. HELLO-WORLD => :HELLO-WORLD => (1 ;; This value is arbitrary. 2) ^ Note how the indentation and the comment of (1 2) were left alone, but the output and the first return value got updated. Alternatively, C-u 1 mgl-pax-transcribe will emit commented markup: (values (princ :hello) (list 1 2)) ;.. HELLO ;=> :HELLO ;=> (1 2) C-u 0 mgl-pax-retranscribe-region will turn commented into non-commented markup. In general, the numeric prefix argument is the index of the syntax to be used in *TRANSCRIBE-SYNTAXES*. Without a prefix argument, mgl-pax-retranscribe-region will not change the markup style. Finally, not only do both functions work at any indentation level but in comments too: ;;;; (values (princ :hello) (list 1 2)) ;;;; .. HELLO ;;;; => :HELLO ;;;; => (1 2) The dynamic environment of the transcription is determined by the :DYNENV argument of the enclosing cl-transcript code block (see Controlling the Dynamic Environment). Transcription support in Emacs can be enabled by loading src/mgl-pax.el. See Emacs Setup. ### Transcript API - [function] TRANSCRIBE INPUT OUTPUT &KEY UPDATE-ONLY (INCLUDE-NO-OUTPUT UPDATE-ONLY) (INCLUDE-NO-VALUE UPDATE-ONLY) (ECHO T) (CHECK-CONSISTENCY *TRANSCRIBE-CHECK-CONSISTENCY*) DEFAULT-SYNTAX (INPUT-SYNTAXES *TRANSCRIBE-SYNTAXES*) (OUTPUT-SYNTAXES *TRANSCRIBE-SYNTAXES*) DYNENV Read forms from INPUT and write them (iff ECHO) to OUTPUT followed by any output and return values produced by calling EVAL on the form. The variables *, **, ***, /, //, ///, -, +, ++, +++ are locally bound and updated as in a REPL. Since TRANSCRIBE EVALuates arbitrary code anyway, forms are read with *READ-EVAL* T. INPUT can be a stream or a string, while OUTPUT can be a stream or NIL, in which case output goes into a string. The return value is the OUTPUT stream or the string that was constructed. Go up to Transcribing with Emacs for nice examples. A more mind-bending one is this: (transcribe "(princ 42) " nil) => "(princ 42) .. 42 => 42 " However, the above may be a bit confusing since this documentation uses TRANSCRIBE markup syntax in this very example, so let's do it differently. If we have a file with these contents: (values (princ 42) (list 1 2)) it is transcribed to: (values (princ 42) (list 1 2)) .. 42 => 42 => (1 2) Output to all standard streams is captured and printed with the :OUTPUT prefix (".."). The return values above are printed with the :READABLE prefix ("=>"). Note how these prefixes are always printed on a new line to facilitate parsing. Updating TRANSCRIBE is able to parse its own output. If we transcribe the previous output above, we get it back exactly. However, if we remove all output markers, leave only a placeholder value marker and pass :UPDATE-ONLY T with source: (values (princ 42) (list 1 2)) => we get this: (values (princ 42) (list 1 2)) => 42 => (1 2) With UPDATE-ONLY, the printed output of a form is transcribed only if there were output markers in the source. Similarly, with UPDATE-ONLY, return values are transcribed only if there were value markers in the source. No Output/Values If the form produces no output or returns no values, then whether or not output and values are transcribed is controlled by INCLUDE-NO-OUTPUT and INCLUDE-NO-VALUE, respectively. By default, neither is on so: (values) .. => is transcribed to (values) With UPDATE-ONLY true, we probably wouldn't like to lose those markers since they were put there for a reason. Hence, with UPDATE-ONLY, INCLUDE-NO-OUTPUT and INCLUDE-NO-VALUE default to true. So, with UPDATE-ONLY the above example is transcribed to: (values) .. => ; No value where the last line is the :NO-VALUE prefix. Consistency Checks If CHECK-CONSISTENCY is true, then TRANSCRIBE signals a continuable TRANSCRIPTION-OUTPUT-CONSISTENCY-ERROR whenever a form's output as a string is different from what was in INPUT, provided that INPUT contained the output. Similarly, for values, a continuable TRANSCRIPTION-VALUES-CONSISTENCY-ERROR is signalled if a value read from the source does not print as the as the value returned by EVAL. This allows readable values to be hand-indented without failing consistency checks: (list 1 2) => ;; This is commented, too. (1 ;; Funny indent. 2) See Transcript Consistency Checking for the full picture. Unreadable Values The above scheme involves READ, so consistency of unreadable values cannot be treated the same. In fact, unreadable values must even be printed differently for transcribe to be able to read them back: (defclass some-class () ()) (defmethod print-object ((obj some-class) stream) (print-unreadable-object (obj stream :type t) (format stream "~%~%end"))) (make-instance 'some-class) ==> #<SOME-CLASS --> --> end> where "==>" is the :UNREADABLE prefix and "-->" is the :UNREADABLE-CONTINUATION prefix. As with outputs, a consistency check between an unreadable value from the source and the value from EVAL is performed with STRING= by default. That is, the value from EVAL is printed to a string and compared to the source value. Hence, any change to unreadable values will break consistency checks. This is most troublesome with instances of classes with the default PRINT-OBJECT method printing the memory address. See Finer-Grained Consistency Checks. Errors If an ERROR condition is signalled, the error is printed to the output and no values are returned. (progn (print "hello") (error "no greeting")) .. .. "hello" .. debugger invoked on SIMPLE-ERROR: .. no greeting To keep the textual representation somewhat likely to be portable, the printing is done with (FORMAT T "#<~S ~S>" (TYPE-OF ERROR) (PRINC-TO-STRING ERROR)). SIMPLE-CONDITIONs are formatted to strings with SIMPLE-CONDITION-FORMAT-CONTROL and SIMPLE-CONDITION-FORMAT-ARGUMENTS. Syntaxes Finally, a transcript may employ different syntaxes for the output and values of different forms. When INPUT is read, the syntax for each form is determined by trying to match all prefixes from all syntaxes in INPUT-SYNTAXES against a line. If there are no output or values for a form in INPUT, then the syntax remains undetermined. When OUTPUT is written, the prefixes to be used are looked up in DEFAULT-SYNTAX of OUTPUT-SYNTAXES, if DEFAULT-SYNTAX is not NIL. If DEFAULT-SYNTAX is NIL, then the syntax used by the same form in the INPUT is used or (if that could not be determined) the syntax of the previous form. If there was no previous form, then the first syntax if OUTPUT-SYNTAXES is used. To produce a transcript that's executable Lisp code, use :DEFAULT-SYNTAX :COMMENTED-1: (make-instance 'some-class) ;==> #<SOME-CLASS ;--> ;--> end> (list 1 2) ;=> (1 ;-> 2) To translate the above to uncommented syntax, use :DEFAULT-SYNTAX :DEFAULT. If DEFAULT-SYNTAX is NIL (the default), the same syntax will be used in the output as in the input as much as possible. Dynamic Environment If DYNENV is non-NIL, then it must be a function that establishes the dynamic environment in which transcription shall take place. It is called with a single argument: a thunk (a function of no arguments). See Controlling the Dynamic Environment for an example. - [variable] *TRANSCRIBE-CHECK-CONSISTENCY* NIL The default value of TRANSCRIBE's CHECK-CONSISTENCY argument. - [variable] *TRANSCRIBE-SYNTAXES* ((:DEFAULT (:OUTPUT "..") (:NO-VALUE "=> ; No value") (:READABLE "=>") (:UNREADABLE "==>") (:UNREADABLE-CONTINUATION "-->")) (:COMMENTED-1 (:OUTPUT ";..") (:NO-VALUE ";=> ; No value") (:READABLE ";=>") (:READABLE-CONTINUATION ";->") (:UNREADABLE ";==>") (:UNREADABLE-CONTINUATION ";-->")) (:COMMENTED-2 (:OUTPUT ";;..") (:NO-VALUE ";;=> ; No value") (:READABLE ";;=>") (:READABLE-CONTINUATION ";;->") (:UNREADABLE ";;==>") (:UNREADABLE-CONTINUATION ";;-->"))) The default syntaxes used by TRANSCRIBE for reading and writing lines containing output and values of an evaluated form. A syntax is a list of of the form (SYNTAX-ID &REST PREFIXES) where PREFIXES is a list of (PREFIX-ID PREFIX-STRING) elements. For example the syntax :COMMENTED-1 looks like this: (:commented-1 (:output ";..") (:no-value ";=> No value") (:readable ";=>") (:readable-continuation ";->") (:unreadable ";==>") (:unreadable-continuation ";-->")) All of the above prefixes must be defined for every syntax except for :READABLE-CONTINUATION. If that's missing (as in the :DEFAULT syntax), then the following value is read with READ and printed with PRIN1 (hence no need to mark up the following lines). When writing, an extra space is added automatically if the line to be prefixed is not empty. Similarly, the first space following the prefix is discarded when reading. See TRANSCRIBE for how the actual syntax to be used is selected. - [condition] TRANSCRIPTION-ERROR ERROR Represents syntactic errors in the SOURCE argument of TRANSCRIBE and also serves as the superclass of TRANSCRIPTION-CONSISTENCY-ERROR. - [condition] TRANSCRIPTION-CONSISTENCY-ERROR TRANSCRIPTION-ERROR A common superclass for TRANSCRIPTION-OUTPUT-CONSISTENCY-ERROR and TRANSCRIPTION-VALUES-CONSISTENCY-ERROR. - [condition] TRANSCRIPTION-OUTPUT-CONSISTENCY-ERROR TRANSCRIPTION-CONSISTENCY-ERROR Signalled (with CERROR) by TRANSCRIBE when invoked with :CHECK-CONSISTENCY and the output of a form is not the same as what was parsed. - [condition] TRANSCRIPTION-VALUES-CONSISTENCY-ERROR TRANSCRIPTION-CONSISTENCY-ERROR Signalled (with CERROR) by TRANSCRIBE when invoked with :CHECK-CONSISTENCY and the values of a form are inconsistent with their parsed representation. ### Transcript Consistency Checking The main use case for consistency checking is detecting out-of-date examples in documentation, although using it for writing tests is also a possibility. Here, we focus on the former. When a Markdown code block tagged cl-transcript is processed during Generating Documentation, the code in it is replaced with the output of with (TRANSCRIBE <CODE> NIL :UPDATE-ONLY T :CHECK-CONSISTENCY T). Suppose we have the following example of the function GREET, that prints hello and returns 7. ```cl-transcript (greet) .. hello => 7 ``` Now, if we change GREET to print or return something else, a TRANSCRIPTION-CONSISTENCY-ERROR will be signalled during documentation generation. Then we may fix the documentation or CONTINUE from the error. By default, comparisons of previous to current output, readable and unreadable return values are performed with STRING=, EQUAL, and STRING=, respectively, which is great in the simple case. Non-determinism aside, exact matching becomes brittle as soon as the notoriously unportable pretty printer is used or when unreadable objects are printed with their #<> syntax, especially when PRINT-UNREADABLE-OBJECT is used with :IDENTITY T. #### Finer-Grained Consistency Checks To get around this problem, consistency checking of output, readable and unreadable values can be customized individually by supplying TRANSCRIBE with a CHECK-CONSISTENCY argument like ((:OUTPUT <OUTPUT-CHECK>) (:READABLE <READABLE-CHECK>) (:UNREADABLE <UNREADABLE-CHECK>)). In this case, <OUTPUT-CHECK> may be NIL, T, or a function designator. - If it's NIL or there is no :OUTPUT entry in the list, then the output is not checked for consistency. - If it's T, then the outputs are compared with the default, STRING=. - If it's a function designator, then it's called with two strings and must return whether they are consistent with each other. The case of <READABLE-CHECK> and <UNREADABLE-CHECK> is similar. Code blocks tagged cl-transcript can take arguments, which they pass on to TRANSCRIBE. The following shows how to check only the output. ```cl-transcript (:check-consistency ((:output t))) (error "Oh, no.") .. debugger invoked on SIMPLE-ERROR: .. Oh, no. (make-condition 'simple-error) ==> #<SIMPLE-ERROR {1008A81533}> ``` #### Controlling the Dynamic Environment The dynamic environment in which forms in the transcript are evaluated can be controlled via the :DYNENV argument of cl-transcript. ```cl-transcript (:dynenv my-transcript) ... ``` In this case, instead of calling TRANSCRIBE directly, the call will be wrapped in a function of no arguments and passed to the function MY-TRANSCRIPT, which establishes the desired dynamic environment and calls its argument. The following definition of MY-TRANSCRIPT simply packages up oft-used settings to TRANSCRIBE. (defun my-transcript (fn) (let ((*transcribe-check-consistency* '((:output my-transcript-output=) (:readable equal) (:unreadable nil)))) (funcall fn))) (defun my-transcript-output= (string1 string2) (string= (my-transcript-normalize-output string1) (my-transcript-normalize-output string2))) (defun my-transcript-normalize-output (string) (squeeze-whitespace (delete-trailing-whitespace (delete-comments string)))) A more involved solution could rebind global variables set in transcripts, unintern symbols created or even create a temporary package for evaluation. #### Utilities for Consistency Checking - [function] SQUEEZE-WHITESPACE STRING Replace consecutive whitespace characters with a single space in STRING and trim whitespace from the right. This is useful to undo the effects of pretty printing when building comparison functions for TRANSCRIBE. - [function] DELETE-TRAILING-WHITESPACE STRING Delete whitespace characters after the last non-whitespace character in each line in STRING. - [function] DELETE-COMMENTS STRING &KEY (PATTERN ";") For each line in STRING delete the rest of the line after and including the first occurrence of PATTERN. On changed lines, delete trailing whitespace too. This function does not parse STRING as Lisp forms, hence all occurrences of PATTERN (even those seemingly in string literals) are recognized as comments. Let's define a comparison function: (defun string=/no-comments (string1 string2) (string= (delete-comments string1) (delete-comments string2))) And use it to check consistency of output: ```cl-transcript (:check-consistency ((:output string=/no-comments))) (format t "hello~%world") .. hello ; This is the first line. .. world ; This is the second line. ``` Just to make sure the above example works, here it is without being quoted. (format t "hello~%world") .. hello ; This is the first line. .. world ; This is the second line. ## Parsing ### Parsing Names When encountering a word such as CLASSes in a docstring, PAX needs to find the name, and how that's done varies slightly. Codification, for example, looks for interesting names, Navigating Sources in Emacs for names with Lisp DEFINITIONS, and Linking for names with any kind of definition. This is not as straightforward as it sounds because it needs to handle cases like nonREADable, PRINTed, and all the various forms of Linking in docstrings as well as in comments, and the (NAME LOCATIVE) syntax in DEFSECTION. - [glossary-term] word A word is a string from which we want to extract a name. When Navigating, the word is slime-sexp-at-point or the label of a Markdown reference link if point is over one. Similarly, when Generating Documentation, it is a non-empty string between whitespace characters in a docstring or the label of a Markdown reference link. - [glossary-term] raw name A raw name is a string from which a name may be read. Raw names correspond to an intermediate parsing step between words an names. See Names in Raw Names. - [glossary-term] name A name is a DRef name. That is, a symbol, a string or a nested list of the previous associated with a definition, whose kind is given by a locative. Depending on the context, trimming and depluralization may be enabled (see Raw Names in Words), while the possible names may be restricted to symbols (see Names in Raw Names). - Trimming: Enabled for M-. Defaulting and Codification. - Depluralization: Enabled when the word is part of the normal flow of text (i.e. not for Specific Reflink with Text, Unspecific Reflink with Text and various Elisp functions such as mgl-pax-apropos unless they determine their argument from buffer contents). - Symbols only: This is the case for Codification and Unspecific Autolink to prevent string-based definitions from littering the documentation with links without the control provided by explicitly IMPORTing symbols. For a word, a number of raw names is generated by trimming delimiter characters and plural markers, and for each raw name a number of names are considered until one is found suitable in the context. The following subsections describe the details of the parsing algorithm. #### Raw Names in Words From words, raw names are parsed by trimming some prefixes and suffixes. For a given word, multiple raw names are considered in the following order. 1. The entire word. 2. Trimming the following characters from the left of the word: #<{;"'` 3. Trimming the following characters from the right of the word: ,;:.>}"'` 4. Trimming both of the previous two at the same time. 5. From the result of 4., If a word ends with what looks like a plural marker (case-insensitive), then a name is created by removing it. For example, from the word BUSES the plural marker ES is removed to produce the name BUS. The list of plural markers considered is SES (e.g. GASSES), ES (e.g. BUSES), S (e.g. CARS), ZES (e.g. FEZZES), and REN (e.g. CHILDREN). 6. From the result of 4., removing the prefix before the first, and the suffix after the last uppercase character if it contains at least one lowercase character. #### Names in Raw Names For each raw name from Raw Names in Words, various names may be considered until one is found that's suitable in the context. The following examples list the names considered for a given raw name, assuming that READTABLE-CASE is :UPCASE as well as that FOO and |Foo| are interned. - "foo": FOO, "foo", "FOO" (rules 1, 2, 3) - "FOO": FOO, "FOO" (rules 1, 2) - "Foo": "Foo", "FOO" (rules 2, 3) - "|Foo|": |Foo| (rule 4) - "\"foo\"": "foo" (rule 5) The rules are: 1. If the raw name is not mixed case (i.e. it doesn't have both upper- and lowercase characters) and it names an interned symbol (subject to the current Package and Readtable), then that symbol is considered as a name. 2. The raw name itself (a string) is considered a name. 3. The raw name upcased or downcased according to READTABLE-CASE (subject to the current readtable) but still as a string. This is to allow [dref][package] to refer to the "DREF" package regardless of whether the symbol DREF is interned in the current package. 4. If the raw name is explicitly a symbol (it starts with #\|), and it names an interned symbol (subject to the current Package and Readtable), then that symbol is considered as a name and nothing else. 5. If the raw name has an embedded string (it starts with #\") and READ-FROM-STRING can read the embedded string from it, then that string is considered as a name and nothing else. <br/> For example, when M-. is pressed while point is over nonREADable., the last word of the sentence It may be nonREADable., the following raw names are considered until one is found with a definition: 1. The entire word, "nonREADable.". 2. Trimming left does not produce a new raw name. 3. Trimming right removes the dot and gives "nonREADable". 4. Trimming both is the same as trimming right. 5. No plural markers are found. 6. The lowercase prefix and suffix is removed around the uppercase core, giving "READ". This names an interned symbol which has a definition, so M-. will visit it. When Generating Documentation, Autolinking behaves similarly. ### Parsing Locatives Locatives are parsed almost as if by READ. They are found in buffer contents around a word when M-. Defaulting or Generating Documentation, and in the string entered when M-. Prompting, with a similar distinction when Browsing Live Documentation. Parsing deviates from READ in the following ways. - No new symbols are INTERNed during parsing. If an expression contains uninterned symbols, then it is not parsable as a locative. - Read-time evaluation (#.) follows normal READ semantics. Thus, (method ((eql #.(find-package 'cl)))) may INTERN the symbol CL. - A locative that involves unreadable objects that print using the #< syntax (e.g. (METHOD ((EQL #<PACKAGE DREF>)))) is parsable in the context of a name if each unreadable object in the locative occurs in one of the DEFINITIONS of that name and it prints to an equivalent string (e.g. #<PACKAGE DREF> above). - [glossary-term] prints to an equivalent string An object with an unreadable representation is said to print to some string S if its PRIN1 representation (under WITH-STANDARD-IO-SYNTAX but in the current package and with *PRINT-READABLY* NIL) is the same as S, where consecutive whitepace characters are replaced with a single space in both strings, and the comparison is case-insensitive. See the related concept of stable printed locative, that requires the printed representation of entire locatives to be unique and non-changing to support Linking. ## Writing Extensions ### Adding New Locatives Once everything in Extending DRef has been done, there are only a couple of PAX generic functions left to extend. - [generic-function] DOCUMENT-OBJECT* OBJECT STREAM Write OBJECT in *FORMAT* to STREAM. Specialize this on a subclass of DREF if that subclass is not RESOLVEable, else on the type of object it resolves to. This function is for extension only. Don't call it directly. - [generic-function] EXPORTABLE-REFERENCE-P PACKAGE SYMBOL LOCATIVE-TYPE LOCATIVE-ARGS Return true if SYMBOL is to be exported from PACKAGE when it occurs in a DEFSECTION in a reference with LOCATIVE-TYPE and LOCATIVE-ARGS. SYMBOL is accessible in PACKAGE. The default method calls EXPORTABLE-LOCATIVE-TYPE-P with LOCATIVE-TYPE and ignores the other arguments. By default, SECTIONs and GLOSSARY-TERMs are not exported although they are EXPORTABLE-LOCATIVE-TYPE-P. To export symbols naming sections from MGL-PAX, the following method could be added: (defmethod exportable-reference-p ((package (eql (find-package 'mgl-pax))) symbol (locative-type (eql 'section)) locative-args) t) - [generic-function] EXPORTABLE-LOCATIVE-TYPE-P LOCATIVE-TYPE Return true if symbols in references with LOCATIVE-TYPE are to be exported by default when they occur in a DEFSECTION. The default method returns T, while the methods for locative types SECTION, GLOSSARY-TERM, PACKAGE, ASDF:SYSTEM, METHOD and INCLUDE return NIL. This function is called by the default method of EXPORTABLE-REFERENCE-P to decide what symbols DEFSECTION shall export when its EXPORT argument is true. Also note that due to the Home Section logic, especially for locative types with string names, DREF-EXT:DOCSTRING* should probably return a non-NIL package. ### Locative Aliases DEFINE-LOCATIVE-ALIAS can be used to help M-. and Specific Autolinks disambiguate references based on the context of a name as described on Parsing. The following example shows how to make docstrings read more naturally by defining an alias. (defclass my-string () ()) (defgeneric my-string (obj) (:documentation "Convert OBJ to MY-STRING.")) ;;; This version of FOO has a harder to read docstring because ;;; it needs to disambiguate the MY-STRING reference. (defun foo (x) "FOO takes and argument X, a [MY-STRING][class] object.") ;;; Define OBJECT as an alias for the CLASS locative. (define-locative-alias object class) ;;; Note how no explicit link is needed anymore. (defun foo (x) "FOO takes an argument X, a MY-CLASS object.") Similarly, defining the indefinite articles as aliases of the CLASS locative can reduce the need for explicit linking. (define-locative-alias a class) (define-locative-alias an class) Since these are unlikely to be universally helpful, make sure not to export the symbols A and AN. ### Extending DOCUMENT For all definitions that it encounters, DOCUMENT calls DOCUMENT-OBJECT* to generate documentation. The following utilities are for writing new DOCUMENT-OBJECT* methods, which emit Markdown. - [variable] *FORMAT* Bound by DOCUMENT to its FORMAT argument, this allows Markdown output to depend on the output format. - [macro] WITH-HEADING (STREAM &KEY DREF LINK-TITLE-TO) &BODY BODY Write a Markdown heading with the DOCTITLE of DREF to STREAM. - DREF defaults to the definition for which documentation is currently being generated. - Nested WITH-HEADINGs produce nested headings. - If *DOCUMENT-LINK-SECTIONS*, generate anchors based on DREF. - LINK-TITLE-TO behaves like the LINK-TITLE-TO argument of DEFSECTION. - [generic-function] DOCTITLE* OBJECT DOCTITLE* extends DOCTITLE in the same way as DOCSTRING* extends DOCSTRING. The default method returns NIL. This function is for extension only. Do not call it directly. - [macro] DOCUMENTING-DEFINITION (STREAM &KEY DREF PACKAGE READTABLE (ARGLIST NIL)) &BODY BODY Write DREF to STREAM as described in *DOCUMENT-MARK-UP-SIGNATURES*, and establish DREF as a Local Definition for the processing of BODY. - DREF defaults to the definition for which documentation is currently being generated. - If DREF has a DOCTITLE, then it is PRINCed after the LOCATIVE-TYPE (see Markdown in Titles). Else, (DREF-NAME DREF) is printed subject to *DOCUMENT-DOWNCASE-UPPERCASE-CODE* but with all Markdown and MathJax markup escaped. - *PACKAGE* and *READTABLE* are bound to PACKAGE and READTABLE for the duration of printing the ARGLIST and the processing of BODY. If either is NIL, then a default value is computed as described in Package and Readtable. - ARGLIST: - If it is not provided, then it defaults to (ARGLIST DREF). - If NIL, then it is not printed. - If it is a list, then it is must be a lambda list and is printed without the outermost parens and with the package names removed from the argument names. - If its is a string, then it must be valid Markdown. - It is not allowed to have WITH-HEADING within the dynamic extent of BODY. - [macro] WITH-DISLOCATED-NAMES NAMES &BODY BODY For each name in NAMES, establish a Local Definition. - [function] DOCUMENT-DOCSTRING DOCSTRING STREAM &KEY (INDENTATION " ") EXCLUDE-FIRST-LINE-P (PARAGRAPHP T) Write DOCSTRING to STREAM, sanitizing the Markdown from it, performing Codification and Linking, finally prefixing each line with INDENTATION. The prefix is not added to the first line if EXCLUDE-FIRST-LINE-P. If PARAGRAPHP, then add a newline before and after the output. - [function] ESCAPE-MARKDOWN STRING &KEY (ESCAPE-INLINE T) (ESCAPE-MATHJAX T) (ESCAPE-HTML T) (ESCAPE-BLOCK T) Backslash escape Markdown constructs in STRING. - If ESCAPE-INLINE, then escape the following characters: *_`[]\ - If ESCAPE-MATHJAX, then escape $ characters. - If ESCAPE-HTML, then escape the following characters: <& - If ESCAPE-BLOCK, then escape whatever is necessary to avoid starting a new Markdown block (e.g. a paragraph, heading, etc). - [function] PRIN1-TO-MARKDOWN OBJECT &KEY (ESCAPE-INLINE T) (ESCAPE-MATHJAX T) (ESCAPE-HTML T) (ESCAPE-BLOCK T) Like PRIN1-TO-STRING, but bind *PRINT-CASE* depending on *DOCUMENT-DOWNCASE-UPPERCASE-CODE* and *FORMAT*, and ESCAPE-MARKDOWN. ### Sections SECTION objects rarely need to be dissected since DEFSECTION and DOCUMENT cover most needs. However, it is plausible that one wants to subclass them and maybe redefine how they are presented. - [class] SECTION DEFSECTION stores its NAME, TITLE, PACKAGE, READTABLE and ENTRIES arguments in SECTION objects. - [reader] SECTION-NAME SECTION (:NAME) The name of the global variable whose value is this SECTION object. - [reader] SECTION-PACKAGE SECTION (:PACKAGE) *PACKAGE* will be bound to this package when generating documentation for this section. - [reader] SECTION-READTABLE SECTION (:READTABLE) *READTABLE* will be bound to this when generating documentation for this section. - [reader] SECTION-TITLE SECTION (:TITLE) A title or NIL. Used in generated documentation (see Markdown Output) and is returned by DOCTITLE for SECTION objects and SECTION definitions. - [function] SECTION-LINK-TITLE-TO SECTION - [function] SECTION-ENTRIES SECTION A list of Markdown docstrings and XREFs in the order they occurred in DEFSECTION. ### Glossary Terms GLOSSARY-TERM objects rarely need to be dissected since DEFINE-GLOSSARY-TERM and DOCUMENT cover most needs. However, it is plausible that one wants to subclass them and maybe redefine how they are presented. - [class] GLOSSARY-TERM See DEFINE-GLOSSARY-TERM. - [reader] GLOSSARY-TERM-NAME GLOSSARY-TERM (:NAME) The name of the global variable whose value is this GLOSSARY-TERM object. - [reader] GLOSSARY-TERM-TITLE GLOSSARY-TERM (:TITLE) A title or NIL. Used in generated documentation (see Markdown Output) and is returned by DOCTITLE for GLOSSARY-TERM objects and GLOSSARY-TERM definitions.. - [reader] GLOSSARY-TERM-URL GLOSSARY-TERM (:URL) A string or NIL. * * * ###### \[generated by [MGL-PAX](https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax)\]