HELP LISPVED John Williams, August 1985
Revised June 1995
This HELP file documents some of the ways in which the Ved editor can
assist in the process of preparing and testing Lisp programs. It assumes
the reader is familiar with the basics of Ved - how to move the cursor,
<ENTER> commands, marking ranges of text, and so on. If you do come
across unfamiliar concepts here, try looking in HELP * VED.
CONTENTS - (Use <ENTER> g to access required sections)
1 Invoking the Editor
2 File Names
3 Leaving the Editor
4 Wiggling Brackets
5 More Facilities for Manipulating Lists
6 Finding Function Definitions
7 Processing Functions
8 Tidying Functions
9 Compilation in Ved
10 Immediate Mode
11 Debugging Aids
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1 Invoking the Editor
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There are two ways to get into Ved from the Lisp top-level loop. The
first, and simplest, is to type:
ved myfile.lsp
The other way to get from Lisp to the editor is to use the Common Lisp
function ed. For example:
(ed "myfile.lsp")
If given a file-name (i.e. string) as argument, ed invokes Ved on the
specified file. If ed is not given an argument, it returns you to the
file most recently edited.
ed may also be given a symbol as argument. For details, see Finding
Function Definitions, below.
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2 File Names
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When choosing a file name, it is important to give it the correct file
extension: the part of the filename that starts at the last dot. For
example, the extension of myfile.lsp is .lsp. The file extension tells
Ved what language a file contains: .lsp signifies Lisp, .pl denotes
Prolog, and .p indicates Pop-11. This is how Ved knows which compiler to
use on a file.
(Note for experienced users: Ved uses the Lisp variable *lispfiletypes*
to identify Lisp program files. See REF * POPLOG_ONLY for details).
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3 Leaving the Editor
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To leave Ved, use either <ENTER> lisp or <ENTER> pop. The first will
take you into Lisp, whether the editor was originally entered from Lisp
or not. The latter returns you to the top-level compiler from which Ved
was invoked. To ensure returning to Pop-11, use <ENTER> pop11. If you
have Prolog loaded, then <ENTER> prolog will leave Ved and restart the
Prolog top-level.
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4 Wiggling Brackets
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Ved has a number of utilities that assist with that perennial problem of
producing Lisp code, matching parentheses. As you may have noticed, Ved
is set up so that typing a closing round bracket in a .lsp file causes
the cursor to be "wiggled" over the matching opening bracket. This
facility can be extended in various ways:
<ENTER> set vedwiggling
<ENTER> wiggle
These both switch all automatic wiggling on and off.
<ENTER> set vedwiggletimes integer
This command alters the speed of the wiggle. The initial value is
5, but on fast machines/terminals this may need to be increased.
It is often useful to set the Pop-11 variable vedwiggletimes in your
vedinit.p file.
<ENTER> wiggle opening-bracket closing-bracket
e.g wiggle []
Sets up Ved so that the cursor is wiggled over the nearest matching
opening-bracket every time closing-bracket is typed (in a file with
the same file extension as the current file). Repeating the command
switches wiggling off.
<ENTER> wmp
Causes the cursor to wiggle over the bracket matching the character
under the cursor. Works in either direction. Knows about (), [], {},
and <>. wmp stands for "Wiggle matching parenthesis".
Finally, the Ved key sequence <ESC> ) automatically inserts closing )
characters at the end of a Lisp function (or expression).
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5 More Facilities for Manipulating Lists
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Some Lisp programmers find it useful to be able to move to, or mark, the
beginnings and ends of lists. Accordingly, Ved provides the following
set of <ENTER> commands:
<ENTER> gbl
Go to the beginning of the list the cursor is currently within.
<ENTER> gel
Go to the end of the list the cursor is currently within.
<ENTER> gol
Go out of the current list. Useful for stepping backwards through a
piece of code.
<ENTER> mp
Move the cursor to the matching parenthesis. Similar to <ENTER> wmp
(see above) but leaves the cursor at the matching bracket. Works in
either direction.
<ENTER> mbl
Mark the beginning of the list the cursor is currently within. Will
break the line just before the opening list bracket if the list
doesn't start on a line by itself.
<ENTER> mel
Mark the end of the list the cursor is currently within. Will break
the line just after the closing list bracket if the list doesn't end
on a line by itself.
<ENTER> mcl
Mark the current list, using <ENTER> mbl and <ENTER> mel.
Note: These commands all skip over intervening lists. They also ignore
list brackets located between string-quotes (") and symbol-quotes (|).
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6 Finding Function Definitions
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There are two ways of using Ved to search for the definition of a
function. The first is to use:
<ENTER> f function-name
This searches the current file only. It looks for lines starting with an
opening round bracket, followed by a token starting with the characters
"DEF", followed by a token starting with function-name. So it can be
used to find functions defined with defun, macros defined with defmacro,
variables defined with defvar, defconstant or defparameter, type-
specifiers defined with deftype, and new classes defined with defclass
or defstruct.
If you don't know where the functional value of a symbol is defined,
use:
<ENTER> ed function-name
This edits the file where the Lisp function ed thinks function-name is
defined, and then uses <ENTER> f function-name to locate the actual
code.
In fact, ed only knows where user-defined functions were most recently
compiled, and so is not guaranteed to work.
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7 Processing Functions
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Ved provides <ENTER> commands for processing the current function,
listed below. Most of the command names end in "p", this is from the
Pop-11 term procedure. See below for details of how Ved determines the
current function.
<ENTER> mcp
This marks the current function (see HELP * MARK).
<ENTER> mbp
Mark beginning of current function.
<ENTER> mep
Mark end of current function (assumes cursor at start of function).
<ENTER> jcp
This justifies (i.e. tidies the indentation) of the current
function. It does not break lines. See the next section, Tidying
Functions for more details.
<ENTER> lcp
Compile current function. Usually assigned to the key sequence
<ESC> c. For more details, see Compilation in Ved, below.
<ENTER> dcp
Delete current function.
<ENTER> gsp/string1/string2
Substitute all occurrences of string1 in current function for
string2. HELP * VEDSEARCH describes Ved's search and replace
facilities in detail.
The boundaries of the current function are determined as follows. First,
Ved searches backwards for a line with the characters (DEF (in upper or
lower case) aligned at the left of the screen. That line is taken to be
the start of the current function. Then Ved reads forward from the
opening bracket, matching instances of ( ) " and |, until the closing
bracket is found. If the Ved variable vedautoindent is set, Ved will
automatically indent each line of text while looking for the closing
bracket. To make this happen, give the command:
<ENTER> set vedautoindent
Entering this a second time will turn automatic indentation off.
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8 Tidying Functions
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As stated above, functions can be tidied by giving the command
<ENTER> jcp
An arbitrary marked portion of code can be tidied with the command
<ENTER> tidy
The tidying routine does not break lines, it merely adjusts the
indentation of the left margin within the marked range. A Ved variable,
vedmaxindent, controls the degree of indentation. Its default value is
4. For example:
(defun len (list)
(if (endp list)
0
(1+ (len (cdr list)))))
If vedmaxindent is altered, like this:
<ENTER> set vedmaxindent 2
then Ved would format the same function as follows:
(defun len (list)
(if (endp list)
0
(1+ (len (cdr list)))))
With vedmaxindent set to 8, we get:
(defun len (list)
(if (endp list)
0
(1+ (len (cdr list)))))
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9 Compilation in Ved
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There are several commands for effecting compilation of source code in a
Ved file. They differ in how much of the file is compiled, and what
happens afterwards. They are listed below:
<ENTER> lmr
Compile marked portion of current file.
Usually assigned to key sequence <CTRL> d
<ENTER> lcp
Compile current function
Usually assigned to key sequence <ESC> c
<ENTER> l1
Compile current file
<ENTER> l
Compile all program files being edited
<ENTER> x1
Compile and write current file, then leave editor
(as if by <ENTER> pop)
<ENTER> x
Compile and write all program files being edited, then
leave editor (as if by <ENTER> pop)
Output (i.e. printing) arising from compilation is put in the current
Ved `output' file. By default, for Lisp users, this is a file called
output.lsp created in the current working directory. The output file can
be changed by one of the following commands:
<ENTER> output filename
Output is redirected to (the Ved file) filename
<ENTER> output .
Output goes to current Ved file
<ENTER> output ^
Output is simply printed on screen, not into any file
<ENTER> output
Displays name of output file
By default, error messages also go to the output file. The command
<ENTER> errs toggles between this behaviour, and just printing errors on
the screen. Debugger interactions also take place in the output file.
Lisp commands can also entered on the status line of any file
(irrespective of the filename extension). To do this, prefix the command
by the default Lisp prompt. The results of such commands are also
printed on the status line, prefixed by the symbol "=>". Error messages
and trace output are only printed on the screen. For example:
<ENTER> == (+ 2 2) => 4
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10 Immediate Mode
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Ved provides a facility, termed immediate mode, whereby an interactive
top-level loop is run in a Ved file. This provides the benefits of
normal non-Ved interaction (e.g. prompting, execution of commands when
<RETURN> is typed) together with the benefits of an editor (e.g. a
record of events, text editing).
To enter Ved in immediate mode from the Lisp top-level, do
== im filename
If you are already inside the editor, use
<ENTER> im filename
The argument filename can be omitted; it defaults to either the last
immediate mode filename, or the current output file if this is the first
invocation of IM.
As for any compilation in Ved, the file-type of the file being edited
determines which compiler is invoked.
See HELP * IM for more details.
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11 Debugging Aids
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The following commands may help in debugging Lisp programs:
<ENTER> mx
Macro expand the current Lisp form (using macroexpand-1). If the
cursor is not positioned over an opening round bracket, <ENTER> gbl
is used to locate the beginning of the current form. The resulting
expansion is displayed in the output file. If the current form is
not a macro call, the message 'Not a macro' is printed on the Ved
status line.
<ENTER> cmx
Like <ENTER> mx, except that it expands compiler macros (using
compiler-macroexpand-1).
<ENTER> ed
Edits the function definition of the symbol directly under the
cursor (if the location of this is known to the system). Uses ed.
--- C.all/lisp/help/lispved
--- Copyright University of Sussex 1992. All rights reserved.