Re: What does the argument list in C-h f delete-duplicates mean?
Alan Mackenzie <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.emacs.xemacs.beta |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Hello, Aidan. On Fri, Jun 05, 2015 at 03:27:45PM +0100, Aidan Kehoe wrote: > Hello Alan, > Ar an cúigiú lá de mí Meitheamh, scríobh Alan Mackenzie: > > When I do C-h f delete-duplicates, the resulting text starts off: > > `delete-duplicates' is a built-in function > > -- loaded from "/home/acm/emacs/xemacs.hg/xemacs/src/sequence.c" > > (delete-duplicates SEQUENCE &key (TEST #'eql) (KEY #'identity) (START 0) END FROM-END TEST-NOT) > > . What does this mean? In particular, I have never seen parenthesised > > expressions, such as "(TEST #'eql)" inside an argument list before. The > > XEmacs manual (page "Name Help") doesn't explain this. Are TEST, KEY > > and START some sort of optional parameters, or what? > Yes, they’re optional keyword parameters, as also used, for example, by > #'make-hash-table. The docstring for defun* goes into more detail on the > syntax. Thanks, that's helpful. > I have been considering moving the extra functionality offered by defun* into > defun, but there are possible bootstrapping complications; if I do it I’ll > move the relevant documentation into the defun docstring, if I don’t I’ll add > a cross-reference to all the C functions that use keywords. Thanks for > pointing out the weakness in our docs! > Best, > Aidan -- Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany). _______________________________________________ XEmacs-Beta mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xemacs.org/mailman/listinfo/xemacs-beta