PAX Manual

1 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 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.

In the following transcript, the above output is rendered from the raw markdown:

(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.

2 Emacs Setup

Load src/mgl-pax.el in Emacs, and maybe set up some key bindings.

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:

(mgl-pax:install-pax-elisp "~/quicklisp/")

Then, assuming the Elisp file is in the quicklisp directory, add something like this to your .emacs:

(load "~/quicklisp/mgl-pax.el")
(mgl-pax-hijack-slime-doc-keys)
(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)

For Browsing Live Documentation, mgl-pax-browser-function 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 Navigating Sources in Emacs, Generating Documentation and Transcribing with Emacs for how to use the relevant features.

[function] INSTALL-PAX-ELISP TARGET-DIR

Copy mgl-pax.el distributed with this package to TARGET-DIR.

3 Links and Systems

Here is the official repository and the HTML documentation for the latest version.

PAX is built on top of the DRef library (bundled in the same repository). See DRef's HTML documentation

3.1 The mgl-pax ASDF System

Version: 0.3.0
Description: Documentation system, browser, generator.
Long Description: The set of dependencies of the MGL-PAX system is kept light, and its heavier dependencies are autoloaded via ASDF when the relevant functionality is accessed. See the MGL-PAX/NAVIGATE, MGL-PAX/DOCUMENT, MGL-PAX/TRANSCRIBE and MGL-PAX/FULL systems. To keep deployed code small, client systems should declare an ASDF dependency on this system, never on the others, which are intended for autoloading and interactive use.
Licence: MIT, see COPYING.
Author: Gábor Melis
Mailto: [email protected]
Homepage: http://melisgl.github.io/mgl-pax
Bug tracker: https://github.com/melisgl/mgl-pax/issues
Source control: GIT

3.2 The mgl-pax/full ASDF System

Description: MGL-PAX with all features preloaded except MGL-PAX/WEB.
Long Description: Do not declare a dependency on this system. It is autoloaded.
Licence: MIT, see COPYING.
Author: Gábor Melis
Mailto: [email protected]

4 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.

5 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 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*)) &OPTIONAL 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.

5.1 Parsing

When Navigating Sources in Emacs or Generating Documentation, references are parsed from the buffer content or docstrings, respectively. In either case, names are extracted from words and then turned into DRef names to form DRef references maybe with locatives found next to the word.

[glossary-term] word

A word is a string from which we want to extract a name. When Navigating, the word is slime-symbol-at-point. When Generating Documentation, it is a non-empty string between whitespace characters in a docstring.

[glossary-term] name

A name is a string that denotes a possible DRef name (e.g. an INTERNed SYMBOL, the name of a PACKAGE or an ASDF:SYSTEM). Names are constructed from words by trimming some prefixes and suffixes. For a given word, multiple candidate names are considered in the following order.
1. The entire word.
2. Trimming the characters `#<{;"'`` from the left of the word.
3. Trimming the characters `,;:.>}"'`` from the right of the word.
4. Trimming both of the previous two at the same time.
5. From the result of 4., further removing some plural markers.
6. From the result of 4., further removing non-uppercase prefixes and suffixes.
For example, when M-. is pressed while point is over nonREADable., the last word of the sentence It may be nonREADable., the following names are considered until one is found with a definition:
1. The entire word, "nonREADable.".
2. Trimming left does not produce a new word.
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 has a definition, which `M-.' will visit.
The exact rules for steps 5. and 6. are the following.
- 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 S (e.g. CARS), ES (e.g. BUSES), SES (e.g. GASSES), ZES (e.g. FEZZES), and REN (e.g. CHILDREN).
- From a codifiable word, a name is created by removing the prefix before the first and the suffix after the last uppercase character if they contain at least one lowercase character.

6 PAX Locatives

To the Locative Types defined by DRef, PAX adds a few of its own.

[locative] SECTION

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

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] DISLOCATED

Refers to a symbol in a non-specific context. Useful for preventing 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 Preventing 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 pseudolocative 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 as in, for example, Emacs Setup for Browsing.
- 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 pseudolocative 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 pseudolocative 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>
```
- 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 sections or definitions 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.
- 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 being DOCUMENTed. When Browsing Live Documentation, a slight difference is that everything is being DOCUMENTed, so using the CLHS link bypasses the page with the definition in the running Lisp.
  - unambiguous: [pprint][clhs] (pprint)
  - ambiguous: [function][clhs] (function)
  - explicit: [function][(clhs class)] (function)
- glossary terms (case-insensitive):
  - [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 alternative form of the Specified Locative 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 (case-insensitive, substring match): [lambda lists][clhs] or [lambda lists][(clhs section)] (lambda lists)
  - by filename: [03_d][clhs] or [03_d][(clhs section)] (03_d)
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 explicit links. 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.

7 Navigating Sources in Emacs

Integration into SLIME's M-. (slime-edit-definition) allows one to visit the SOURCE-LOCATION of a definition(0 1).

The definition is either determined from the buffer content at point or is prompted. If prompted, then the format is <NAME> <LOCATIVE>, where the locative may be omitted to recover stock Slime behaviour.

When determining the definition from the buffer contents, slime-symbol-at-point is parsed as a word, then candidate locatives are looked for before and after that word. Thus, if a locative is the previous or the next expression around the symbol of interest, 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.

In the following examples, when the cursor is on one of the characters of FOO or just after FOO, pressing M-. will visit the definition of function FOO:

function foo
foo function
(function foo)
(foo function)

In particular, references in a DEFSECTION form are in (NAME LOCATIVE) format so M-. will work just fine there.

Just like vanilla M-., this works in comments and docstrings. In the next example, pressing M-. on FOO will visit FOO's default method:

;; See RESOLVE* (method () (dref)) for how this all works.

With a prefix argument (C-u M-.), one can enter a symbol plus a locative separated by whitespace to preselect one of the possibilities.

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. See Browsing Live Documentation.

7.1 The mgl-pax/navigate ASDF System

Description: Slime M-. support for MGL-PAX.
Long Description: Autoloaded by Slime's M-. when src/pax.el is loaded. See Navigating Sources in Emacs.
Licence: MIT, see COPYING.
Author: Gábor Melis
Mailto: [email protected]

8 Generating Documentation

8.1 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 a 3BMD output format (currently one of :MARKDOWN, :HTML and :PLAIN). 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-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 Code, Linking to Sections, and Miscellaneous Variables.

For the details, see the following sections, starting with Documentables. Also see Writing Extensions and DOCUMENT-OBJECT*.

8.1.1 Documentables

The DOCUMENTABLE argument may be a DREF or anything else that is LOCATEable. This includes non-DREF XREFs and first-class objects such as FUNCTIONs.
If DOCUMENTABLE is a string, then it is processed like a docstring in DEFSECTION. That is, with docstring sanitization, Codification, and linking (see Linking to Code, Linking to the Hyperspec).
Finally, DOCUMENTABLE may be a nested list of LOCATEable objects and docstrings. The structure of the list is unimportant. The objects in it are documented in depth-first order.

8.1.2 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.

8.1.3 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.

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.

Finally, :SOURCE-URI-FN is a function of a single, REFERENCE argument. If it returns a value other than NIL, then it must be a string representing an URI. If FORMAT is :HTML and *DOCUMENT-MARK-UP-SIGNATURES* is true, then the locative as displayed in the signature will be a link to this URI. See MAKE-GIT-SOURCE-URI-FN.

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))

8.1.4 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.

8.2 The mgl-pax/document ASDF System

Description: Documentation generation support for MGL-PAX.
Long Description: Do not declare a dependency on this system. It is autoloaded. See Generating Documentation.
Licence: MIT, see COPYING.
Author: Gábor Melis
Mailto: [email protected]

8.3 Browsing Live Documentation

Documentation can be browsed live in Emacs or with an external browser. HTML documentation, complete with Codification and links, is generated from docstrings of all kinds of Lisp definitions and PAX SECTIONs.

If Emacs Setup has been done, the Elisp function mgl-pax-document generates and displays documentation as a single HTML page. 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

If the empty string is entered, and there is no existing w3m buffer or w3m is not used, then sections registered in PAX World are listed. If there is a w3m buffer, then entering the empty string displays that buffer.

If we enter function instead, then a disambiguation page will be shown with the documentation of the FUNCTION class and the FUNCTION locative. One may then follow the links on the page to navigate to a page with the documentation the desired definition. If you are browsing live documentation right now, then the disambiguation page is like this: FUNCTION(0 1). In offline documentation, multiple links are shown instead as described in Ambiguous Unspecified Locative.

Alternatively, a locative may be entered as part of the argument to mgl-pax-document as in function class, which gives this result. Finally, the definition of DEFSECTION in the context of a single-page PAX Manual can be viewed by entering pax::@pax-manual#pax:defsection pax:macro.

In interactive use, mgl-pax-document defaults to documenting slime-symbol-at-point, possibly with a nearby locative the same way as in Navigating Sources in Emacs. The convenience function mgl-pax-document-current-definition documents the definition with point in it.

8.3.1 PAX URLs

A PAX URL consists of a REFERENCE and an optional FRAGMENT part:

URL = [REFERENCE] ["#" FRAGMENT]

where REFERENCE names either

a complete reference (e.g. "pax:section class"),
or the name of a reference (e.g. "pax:section"), which possibly makes what to document ambiguous.

8.3.2 Apropos

The Elisp functions mgl-pax-apropos, mgl-pax-apropos-all, and mgl-pax-apropos-package can display the results of DREF:DREF-APROPOS in the live documentation browser. These parallel the functionality of slime-apropos, slime-apropos-all, and slime-apropos-package.

DREF:DREF-APROPOS itself is similar to CL:APROPOS-LIST, but it supports more flexible matching – e.g. filtering by locative types – and returns DRef references.

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.

8.3.3 Emacs Setup for Browsing

Make sure Emacs Setup has been done. In particular, set mgl-pax-browser-function to choose between browsing documentation with w3m in an Emacs buffer, or with an external browser plus a web server in the Lisp image.

In Emacs Setup, (mgl-pax-hijack-slime-doc-keys) was evaluated, which handles the common case of binding keys. The Elisp definition is reproduced here for its docstring.

(defun mgl-pax-hijack-slime-doc-keys ()
  "Make the following changes to `slime-doc-map' (assuming it's
bound to `C-c C-d').

- `C-c C-d a': `mgl-pax-apropos' (replaces `slime-apropos')
- `C-c C-d z': `mgl-pax-aproposa-all' (replaces `slime-apropos-all')
- `C-c C-d p': `mgl-pax-apropos-package' (replaces `slime-apropos-package')
- `C-c C-d d': `mgl-pax-document' (replaces `slime-describe-symbol')
- `C-c C-d f': `mgl-pax-document' (replaces `slime-describe-function')
- `C-c C-d c': `mgl-pax-current-definition-toggle-view'

Also, regardless of whether `w3m' is available, add this:

- `C-c C-d u': `mgl-pax-edit-parent-section'

In addition, because it can be almost as useful as `M-.', one may
want to give `mgl-pax-document' a more convenient binding such as
`C-.' or `s-.' if you have a Super key. For example, to bind
`C-.' in all Slime buffers:

    (slime-bind-keys slime-parent-map nil '((\"C-.\" mgl-pax-document)))

To bind `C-.' globally:

    (global-set-key (kbd \"C-.\") 'mgl-pax-document)"
  
...)

8.3.4 Browsing with w3m

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.

8.3.5 Browsing with Other Browsers

When the value of the Elisp variable mgl-pax-browser-function is not w3m-browse-url, 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").

In the browser, clicking on the locative on the left of the object (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.

[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.

8.4 Markdown Support

The markdown in docstrings is processed with the 3BMD library.

8.4.1 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. 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 in the vicinity of their uses are 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 SECTIONs themselves 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.
```

8.4.2 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.

8.4.3 MathJax

Displaying pretty mathematics in TeX format is supported via MathJax. It can be done inline with $ like this:

$\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx=\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$

which is displayed as $\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx=\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$, or it can be delimited by $$ like this:

$$\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx=\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$$

to get: $$\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx=\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$$

MathJax will leave code blocks (including those inline with backticks) alone. Outside code blocks, escape $ by prefixing it with a backslash 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.

8.5 Codification

[variable] *DOCUMENT-UPPERCASE-IS-CODE* T

When true, interesting names extracted from codifiable words are assumed to be code as if they were marked up 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 iff
- 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 iff
- 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 reference.
See Package and Readtable.

[variable] *DOCUMENT-DOWNCASE-UPPERCASE-CODE* NIL

If true, then all Markdown inline code (that is, stuff between backticks, including those found if *DOCUMENT-UPPERCASE-IS-CODE*) 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 Preventing Autolinking. Use this to mark inline code that's not Lisp.
```
  Press `\\M-.` in Emacs.
```

8.6 Linking to Code

In this section, we describe all ways of linking to code available when *DOCUMENT-UPPERCASE-IS-CODE* is true.

Note that invoking M-. on the name of any of the following links will disambiguate based the textual context, determining the locative. In a nutshell, if M-. works without popping up a list of choices, then the documentation will contain a single link.

[variable] *DOCUMENT-LINK-CODE* T

Enable the various forms of links in docstrings described in Linking to Code. See the following sections for a description of how to use linking.

8.6.1 Specified Locative

The following examples all render as DOCUMENT.

[DOCUMENT][function] (name + locative, explicit link)
DOCUMENT function (name + locative, autolink)
function DOCUMENT (locative + name, autolink)

The Markdown link definition (i.e. function between the second set of brackets above) needs no backticks to mark it as code.

Here and below, the name (DOCUMENT) is uppercased, and we rely on *DOCUMENT-UPPERCASE-IS-CODE* being true. Alternatively, the name could be explicitly marked up as code with a pair of backticks, and then its character case would likely not matter (subject to READTABLE-CASE).

The link text in the above examples is DOCUMENT. To override it, this form may be used:

[see this][document function] (title + name + locative, explicit link) renders as: see this.

8.6.2 Unspecified Locative

When only an name is provided without a locative, all definitions of the name are considered as possible link targets. Then, definitions that are not symbol-based (i.e. whose XREF-NAME is not a symbol) are filtered out to prevent unrelated PACKAGEs and ASDF:SYSTEMs from cluttering the documentation without the control provided by importing symbols.

To further reduce clutter, if the definitions include a GENERIC-FUNCTION locative, then all references with LOCATIVE-TYPE METHOD, ACCESSOR, READER and WRITER are removed to avoid linking to a possibly large number of methods.

Furthermore, filter out all references with LOCATIVE-TYPE LOCATIVE if there are references with other LOCATIVE-TYPEs.

Unambiguous Unspecified Locative

In the following examples, although no locative is specified, DOCUMENT names a single name being DOCUMENTed, so they all render as DOCUMENT.

[DOCUMENT][] (name, explicit link),
DOCUMENT (name, autolink).

To override the title:

[see this][document] (title + name, explicit link) renders as: see this.

Ambiguous Unspecified Locative

These examples all render as SECTION, linking to both definitions of the name SECTION, the CLASS and the LOCATIVE. Note that the rendered output is a single link to a disambiguation page when Browsing Live Documentation, while multiple, numbered links are generated in offline documentation.

[SECTION][] (name, explicit link)
SECTION (name, autolink)

To override the title:

[see this][section] (title + name, explicit link) renders as: see this.

8.6.3 Explicit and Autolinking

The examples in the previous sections are marked with explicit link or autolink. Explicit links are those with a Markdown reference link spelled out explicitly, while autolinks are those without.

8.6.4 Preventing 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].

8.6.5 Unresolvable Links

[condition] UNRESOLVABLE-REFLINK WARNING

When DOCUMENT encounters an explicit link such as [NONEXISTENT][function] that looks like a PAX construct but cannot be resolved, it signals and UNRESOLVABLE-REFLINK warning.
- If the OUTPUT-REFLINK restart is invoked, then no warning is printed and the markdown link is left unchanged. MUFFLE-WARNING(0 1) 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*. Otherwise, it behaves as OUTPUT-REFLINK.

[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.

8.6.6 Suppressed Links

Autolinking of code (i.e. of something like FOO) is suppressed if it would create a link that was already made within the same docstring. In the following docstring, only the first FOO will be turned into a link.

"`FOO` is safe. `FOO` is great."

However, explicit links (when a locative was specified or found near the name) are never suppressed. In the following, in both docstrings, both occurrences FOO produce links.

"`FOO` is safe. [`FOO`][macro] is great."
"`FOO` is safe. Macro `FOO` is great."

As an exception, links with specified and unambiguous locatives to SECTIONs and GLOSSARY-TERMs always produce a link to allow their titles to be displayed properly.

Finally, autolinking to T or NIL is suppressed (see *DOCUMENT-LINK-TO-HYPERSPEC*).

8.6.7 Local References

To declutter the generated output by reducing the number of links, the so-called local references (e.g. references to the very definition for which documentation is being generated) are treated specially. In the following example, there are local references to the function FOO and its arguments, so none of them get turned into links:

(defun foo (arg1 arg2)
  "FOO takes two arguments: ARG1 and ARG2."
  t)

If linking was desired, one could use a Specified Locative (e.g. [FOO][function] or FOO function), which results in a single link. An explicit link with an unspecified locative like [FOO][] generates links to all references involving the FOO symbol except the local ones.

The exact rules for local references are as follows:

Unless a locative is specified, no autolinking is performed for names for which there are local references. For example, FOO does not get any links if there is any local reference with the same name.
With a locative specified (e.g. in the explicit link [FOO][function] or in the text the FOO function), a single link is made irrespective of any local references.
Explicit links with an unspecified locative (e.g. [FOO][]) are linked to all non-local references.

8.7 Linking to the Hyperspec

[variable] *DOCUMENT-LINK-TO-HYPERSPEC* T

If true, link symbols found in code to the Common Lisp Hyperspec unless there is a definition in the running Lisp that is being DOCUMENTed.

Locatives work as expected (see *DOCUMENT-LINK-CODE*): FIND-IF links to FIND-IF, FUNCTION links to FUNCTION(0 1), and [FUNCTION][type] links to FUNCTION.

Autolinking to T and NIL is suppressed. If desired, use [T][] (that links to T(0 1)) 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.

8.8 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 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 section title being the name of the link.

[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. Needs *DOCUMENT-LINK-SECTIONS* to be on to work.

8.9 Miscellaneous Variables

[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 to Code). 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 style links (like [label][id]) are used for linking to sections and code. 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-MARK-UP-SIGNATURES* T

When true, some things such as function names and arglists are rendered as bold and italic. In :HTML output, locative types become links to sources (if :SOURCE-URI-FN is provided, see DOCUMENT), 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.

[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.

8.10 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.

8.10.1 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. If you change this variable, you may need to do a hard refresh in the browser (often C-<f5>). See *BROWSE-HTML-STYLE* for how to control the style used for Browsing Live Documentation.

[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-HEAD* NIL

Stuff to be included in the <head> of the generated HTML.
- If NIL, nothing is included.
- If a STRING(0 1), 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(0 1), 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.

8.10.2 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 chokes on links to the sources).

The recommended workflow is to use gh-pages, 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 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 a function 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 toplevel 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.

8.10.3 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.

[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.

8.11 Overview of Escaping

Let's recap how escaping Codification, downcasing, and Linking to Code 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.

8.12 Output Details

By default, DREFs are documented in the following format.

- [<locative-type>] <name> <arglist>

    <docstring>

The line with the bullet is printed with DOCUMENTING-REFERENCE. The docstring is processed with DOCUMENT-DOCSTRING while Local References 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 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 immediate superclasses with STANDARD-OBJECT, CONDITION and non-exported symbols omitted.
For definitions with a ASDF:SYSTEM locative, their most important slots are printed as an unnumbered list.
When a definition with the SECTION locative is being documented, 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. There is no docstring.
For definitions with an UNKNOWN locative, the LOCATIVE-ARGS are printed as the arglist. There is no docstring.

8.13 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 PAX URLs for 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.

9 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)

9.1 The mgl-pax/transcribe ASDF System

Description: Transcription support for MGL-PAX.
Long Description: Do not declare a dependency on this system. It is autoloaded by MGL-PAX:TRANSCRIBE and by the Emacs integration (see Transcripts).
Licence: MIT, see COPYING.
Author: Gábor Melis
Mailto: [email protected]

9.2 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 of 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.

9.3 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. 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. Since TRANSCRIBE EVALuates arbitrary code anyway, forms are read with *READ-EVAL* T.

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.

9.4 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.

9.4.1 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}>

9.4.2 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.

9.4.3 Utilities for Consistency Checking

[function] SQUEEZE-WHITESPACE STRING

Replace consecutive whitespace characters with a single space in STRING. 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.
```

10 Writing Extensions

10.1 Adding New Locatives

Once everything in Adding New Locatives 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 iff 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 iff 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 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.

10.2 Locative Aliases

DEFINE-LOCATIVE-ALIAS can be used to help M-. and autolinking disambiguate references based on the context of a name as described on Parsing and also in Specified Locative.

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.")

Similary, 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.

10.3 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 OBJECT TITLE &KEY LINK-TITLE-TO) &BODY BODY

Write a markdown heading with TITLE to STREAM. Nested WITH-HEADINGs produce nested headings. If *DOCUMENT-LINK-SECTIONS*, generate anchors based on the definition of OBJECT. LINK-TITLE-TO behaves like the LINK-TITLE-TO argument of DEFSECTION.

[macro] DOCUMENTING-REFERENCE (STREAM &KEY REFERENCE NAME PACKAGE READTABLE ARGLIST) &BODY BODY

Write REFERENCE to STREAM as described in *DOCUMENT-MARK-UP-SIGNATURES*, and establish REFERENCE as a local reference for the processing of BODY.
- REFERENCE defaults to the reference being DOCUMENTed.
- NAME defaults to (XREF-NAME REFERENCE) and is printed after the LOCATIVE-TYPE.
- *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.
- If ARGLIST is NIL, then it is not printed.
- If ARGLIST 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 ARGLIST 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 reference with the DISLOCATED locative, which prevents autolinking.

[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 to Code, 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-HTML T) (ESCAPE-BLOCK T)

Backslash escape markdown constructs in STRING.
- If ESCAPE-INLINE, then escape *_`[]\ characters.
- If ESCAPE-HTML, then escape <& 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-HTML T) (ESCAPE-BLOCK T)

Like PRIN1-TO-STRING, but bind *PRINT-CASE* depending on *DOCUMENT-DOWNCASE-UPPERCASE-CODE* and *FORMAT*, and ESCAPE-MARKDOWN.

10.4 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 markdown string or NIL. Used in generated documentation.

[function] SECTION-LINK-TITLE-TO SECTION

[function] SECTION-ENTRIES SECTION

A list of markdown docstrings and XREFs in the order they occurred in DEFSECTION.

10.5 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 markdown string or NIL. Used in generated documentation (see Output Details).

[reader] GLOSSARY-TERM-URL GLOSSARY-TERM (:URL)

A string or NIL.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
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dref		dref
src		src
test		test
web		web
.gitignore		.gitignore
COPYING		COPYING
HACKING.md		HACKING.md
README		README
README.md		README.md
TODO.org		TODO.org
mgl-pax-bootstrap.asd		mgl-pax-bootstrap.asd
mgl-pax-test.asd		mgl-pax-test.asd
mgl-pax.asd		mgl-pax.asd
mgl-pax.asdf.asd		mgl-pax.asdf.asd

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