GNU bug report logs - #32284
special form documentation

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From: help-debbugs <at> gnu.org (GNU bug Tracking System)
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: tracker <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#32284: closed (special form documentation)
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2018 07:27:01 +0000

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Your message dated Sat, 28 Jul 2018 10:26:43 +0300
with message-id <83lg9vrfbg.fsf <at> gnu.org>
and subject line Re: bug#32284: special form documentation
has caused the debbugs.gnu.org bug report #32284,
regarding special form documentation
to be marked as done.

(If you believe you have received this mail in error, please contact
help-debbugs <at> gnu.org.)


-- 
32284: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=32284
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From: Nicholas Drozd <nicholasdrozd <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: special form documentation
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2018 17:44:17 -0500

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The Elisp manual section on Special Forms (10.2.7) lists around two dozen
special forms, but two of them aren't special forms.

* `lambda', it turns out, is not a special form, but a macro that wraps
itself in a call to the special form `function'. (The documentation for
`lambda' refers to it as "self-quoting"; this might be better changed to
"self-evaluating".)

* `track-mouse' isn't a special form, but a macro wrapper around the
primitive function `internal--track-mouse', which isn't a special form
either. (Section 29.15 on Mouse Tracking also inaccruately refers to
`track-mouse' as a special form.)

On the other hand, the special form `inline' is not listed in the Special
Forms section.

A list of all special forms can be gotten with

(let (special-forms)
  (mapatoms
   (lambda (sym)
     (when (special-form-p sym)
       (push sym special-forms))))
  (sort special-forms #'string<))

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From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Brett Gilio <brettg <at> posteo.net>
Cc: 32284-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org, nicholasdrozd <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#32284: special form documentation
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2018 10:26:43 +0300

> From: Brett Gilio <brettg <at> posteo.net>
> Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2018 19:04:32 -0500
> Cc: 32284 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> Anybody else have any input?

I do: the point about track-mouse is correct: it used to be a special
form (implemented in C), but nowadays is a macro.  So I removed it
from the list of special forms.

I didn't do anything about 'lambda', because its user-facing behavior
is that of a special form, and the fact that it is a thin wrapper
around 'function' is an implementation detail that doesn't necessarily
matter in this context.

With that, I'm closing this bug report.

Thanks.

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