1<!-- Common Lisp HyperSpec (TM), version 7.0 --> 2<HTML> 3<HEAD> 4<TITLE>CLHS: About the Common Lisp HyperSpec (TM)</TITLE> 5<LINK HREF="../Data/clhs.css" REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" /> 6<META HTTP-EQUIV="Author" CONTENT="Kent M. Pitman"> 7<META HTTP-EQUIV="Organization" CONTENT="LispWorks Ltd."> 8<LINK REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm"> 9<LINK REL=COPYRIGHT HREF="../Front/Help.htm#Legal"> 10<LINK REL=DISCLAIMER HREF="../Front/Help.htm#Disclaimer"> 11<LINK REL=PREV HREF="../Front/StartPts.htm"> 12<LINK REL=UP HREF="../Front/index.htm"> 13<LINK REL=NEXT HREF="../Front/StartPts.htm"> 14</HEAD> 15<BODY> 16<A NAME="Top"><H1><A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=65 ALT="[LISPWORKS]" SRC="../Graphics/LWSmall.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm"><IMG WIDTH=237 HEIGHT=65 ALT="[Common Lisp HyperSpec (TM)]" SRC="../Graphics/CLHS_Sm.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> <A REL=PREV HREF="../Front/StartPts.htm"><IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Previous]" SRC="../Graphics/Prev.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A REL=UP HREF="../Front/index.htm"><IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Up]" SRC="../Graphics/Up.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A REL=NEXT HREF="../Front/StartPts.htm"><IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Next]" SRC="../Graphics/Next.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A></H1></A> 17 18<HR> 19 20<H2>About the Common Lisp HyperSpec (TM)</H2> 21 22This page contains the following kinds of information: 23 24<UL> 25<LI><A REL=META HREF="#IconKey"><B>Icon Key</B></A> 26<LI><A REL=META HREF="#Abstract"><B>Abstract</B></A> 27<LI><A REL=META HREF="#Authorship"><B>Authorship Information</B></A> 28<LI><A REL=COPYRIGHT HREF="#Legal"><B>Important Legal Notices</B></A> 29<LI><A REL=META HREF="#Trivia"><B>Trivia</B></A> 30<LI><A REL=META HREF="#Bugs"><B>Bug Reports</B></A> 31</UL> 32 33<HR> 34 35<A NAME="IconKey"><H2>Icon Key</H2></A> 36 37<IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Prev]" SRC="../Graphics/Prev.gif" ALIGN="Bottom"> or <IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[No Prev]" SRC="../Graphics/NoPrev.gif" ALIGN="Bottom"> Go to the previous page, or no previous page.<P> 38 39<IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Up]" SRC="../Graphics/Up.gif" ALIGN="Bottom"> or <IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[No Up]" SRC="../Graphics/NoUp.gif" ALIGN="Bottom"> Go to parent page, or no parent page.<P> 40 41<IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Next]" SRC="../Graphics/Next.gif" ALIGN="Bottom"> or <IMG WIDTH=40 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[No Next]" SRC="../Graphics/NoNext.gif" ALIGN="Bottom"> Go to the next page, or no next page.<P> 42 43<HR> 44 45<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Starting Points]" SRC="../Graphics/StartPts.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> 46Go to the list of starting points.<P> 47 48<A REL=TOC HREF="../Front/Contents.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Contents]" SRC="../Graphics/Contents.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> 49Go to the Table of Contents<P> 50 51<A REL=INDEX HREF="../Front/X_Master.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Index]" SRC="../Graphics/Index.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> 52Go to the Master Index<P> 53 54<A REL=GLOSSARY HREF="../Body/26_a.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Glossary]" SRC="../Graphics/Glossary.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> 55Go to the Glossary.<P> 56 57<A HREF="../Body/01_i.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Symbols]" SRC="../Graphics/Symbols.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> 58Go to the Symbol Index.<P> 59 60<A REL=NAVIGATOR HREF="../Front/Hilights.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Highlights]" SRC="../Graphics/Hilights.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> 61Go to a list of selected Highlights.<P> 62 63<A HREF="../Issues/I_Alpha.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Issues]" SRC="../Graphics/Issues.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> 64Go to the X3J13 Issue index.<P> 65 66<A REL=META HREF="../Front/Help.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Help]" SRC="../Graphics/Help.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> 67Go to this text.<P> 68 69<HR> 70 71<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=65 ALT="[LispWorks]" SRC="../Graphics/LWSmall.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A> Go to the LispWorks home page. 72 73<HR> 74 75<A NAME="Abstract"><H2>Abstract</H2></A> 76 77Lisp is a family of languages with a long history. 78Early key ideas in Lisp were developed by 79<A HREF="http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/">John McCarthy</A> 80in 1956. 81Many important dialects, languages and embedded systems 82have emerged from this work.<P> 83 84In 1981, representatives of several major dialects began to pool their 85efforts to design 86<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp</A>, 87an `industrial strength' dialect of 88Lisp that would provide stability for commercial applications.<P> 89 90The initial design of Common Lisp was well received, and in 1986 91<A HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/x3j13.htm">X3J13</A> 92was formed to transform this work into a formal standard. 93The resulting design, 94<A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/tc_sd4/x3j13sd4.html" 95>X3.226-1994</A>, 96is a standard for Common Lisp--<IT>not</IT> for the entire Lisp family.<P> 97 98The Common Lisp standard improves on earlier Common Lisp 99work by 100<A HREF="../Front/X3J13Iss.htm"> 101placing much greater emphasis on portability, 102clarifying many aspects of compilation semantics</A>, 103and adding several major pieces of 104new functionality: 105<A HREF="../Body/07_.htm">an object-oriented programming system</A>, 106<A HREF="../Body/09_.htm">a condition handling system</A>, 107<A HREF="../Body/06_a.htm">an improved iteration facility</A>, 108and 109<A HREF="../Body/13_.htm">better support for large character sets</A>.<P> 110 111<HR> 112 113<A NAME="Authorship"><H2>Authorship Information</H2></A> 114 115The <A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A> 116is <I>not</I> the ANSI Common Lisp standard, but is based on that standard 117(with <A HREF="#Acknowledgments">permission</A> from 118<A HREF="http://www.ansi.org/">ANSI</A> and 119<A HREF="http://www.x3.org/">X3</A>).<P> 120 121<B>As an official reference to the Common Lisp language, 122<A HREF="#Ordering">hardcopy documentation</A> of 123<A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/tc_sd4/x3j13sd4.html">ANSI Common Lisp, 124(American National Standard X3.226)</A> 125from <A HREF="http://www.ansi.org/">ANSI</A> 126is always definitive.</B><P> 127 128The hypertext markup for this document 129was created by 130<A REV=MADE HREF="mailto:kmp@lispworks.com">Kent Pitman</A>, 131with the aid of a <A HREF="#Caveats">custom program</A> written in 132ANSI Common Lisp and created specifically for this task. 133 134Funding for the markup task was provided by 135and <A REL=COPYRIGHT HREF="#Copyright">copyright of the result</A> is owned by 136<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A></P> 137 138Some <A REL=META HREF="../Front/X3J13Iss.htm">additional design 139documents</A> have been included in <A HREF="#Caveats">marked up</A> form and 140cross-referenced which are <I>not</I> part of the standard but may be useful 141in understanding it. Plaintext versions of these documents, which 142offer a useful historical perspective, are available to anyone by 143anonymous public FTP from <A 144HREF="ftp://parcftp.xerox.com/pub/cl/cleanup/"><TT>ftp://parcftp.xerox.com/pub/cl/cleanup/</TT></A>.<P> 145 146The <A HREF="http://java.sun.com/">Java</A> applet used in the 147<A HREF="../Front/X_Symbol.htm">Symbol Index</A> 148(visible only in some browsers) 149was written by Evan Williams. 150Its <A REL=COPYRIGHT HREF="#Copyright">copyright</A> is owned by 151<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A></P> 152 153<HR> 154 155<A NAME="Legal"><H2>Important Legal Notices</H2></A> 156 157<A NAME="Copyright"><H3>Copyright and Conditions of Use</H3></A> 158 159Copyright 1996-2005, LispWorks Ltd. All Rights Reserved.<P> 160 161The <A HREF="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp.htm-spec/">HTML</A> 162hypertext markup that implements the hypertext features of these 163World Wide Web pages of the Common Lisp specification, collectively the 164<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A>, 165is the property of 166<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A><P> 167 168Distribution of the <A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A> as a hypertext document on 169the Internet does not constitute consent to any use of the underlying 170hypertext markup for redistribution of any kind, commercial or 171otherwise, either via the Internet or using some other form of 172distribution, in hypertext or otherwise.<P> 173 174Permission to copy, distribute, display, and transmit the 175<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A> 176is granted provided that 177copies are not made or distributed or displayed or transmitted for direct 178commercial advantage, that notice is 179given that copying, distribution, display, and/or transmission is by 180permission of <A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A>, 181and that any copy made is COMPLETE and UNMODIFIED. IN PARTICULAR, 182the material that 183MUST appear in the copy includes: 184<OL> 185<LI>this copyright notice and its date; 186<LI>the main index page, 187 <A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm"><TT>../Front/index.htm</TT></A>; 188<LI>all HTML pages to which the main index page links using relative links; 189<LI>all graphical (GIF) images to which it links using relative links, 190 such as the LispWorks logo that appears on each page; and 191<LI>all hypertext links, relative or absolute, such as the link 192to <A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/"><TT>http://www.lispworks.com/</TT></A> 193that appears on each page. 194</OL> 195Permissions related to performance and to creation of derivative works 196are expressly NOT granted.<P> 197 198Permission to make partial copies is expressly NOT granted, EXCEPT that 199limited permission is granted 200to transmit and 201display a partial copy the 202<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A> 203for the ordinary purpose 204of direct viewing by a human 205being in the usual manner that hypertext browsers permit the viewing of 206such a complete document, provided 207that no recopying, redistribution, redisplay, or retransmission is made of 208any such partial copy.<P> 209 210Permission to make modified copies is expressly NOT granted.<P> 211 212Permission to add or replace any links or any graphical images to any of 213these pages is expressly NOT 214granted.<P> 215 216Permission to use any of the included graphical (GIF) images in any 217document other than the 218<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A> 219is expressly NOT granted.<P> 220 221<A NAME="Acknowledgments"><H3>Acknowledgments</H3></A> 222 223Parts of this work incorporate material taken from 224<A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/tc_sd4/x3j13sd4.html">American National Standard X3.226</A>, copyright 1994, and 225is used with permission of the 226<A HREF="http://www.x3.org/">X3 Secretariat</A>, 227ITI, 1250 Eye St., NW., Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005 228and of the copyright holder, 229<A HREF="http://www.ansi.org/">American National Standards Institute</A>. 230ANSI/X3.226 was developed by 231<A HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/x3j13.htm">Technical Committee X3J13</A>, 232Common Lisp.<P> 233 234<A NAME="Ordering">Copies of the ANSI/X3.226 standard</A> 235may be purchased from the 236<A HREF="http://www.ansi.org">American National Standards Institute</A>, 23711 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.<P> 238 239<H3>Restricted Rights Legend</H3> 240 241The 242<A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A> 243is subject to the following Restricted Rights Legend: 244<BLOCKQUOTE> 245``Use, duplication, or disclosure by the 246<A HREF="http://www.whitehouse.gov/">United States Government</A> 247is subject to the restrictions set forth in 248(i) <A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.gsa.gov/far/">FAR 52.227-14 Alt III</A>, 249(ii) <A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.gsa.gov/far/">FAR 52.227-19</A>, 250(iii) <A REL=CITATION HREF="http://www.dtic.mil/dfars/">DFARS 252.7013(c)(1)(ii)</A>, or 251(iv) the accompanying license Agreement, as applicable. 252For purposes of the FAR, the Software shall be deemed to be ``unpublished'' 253and licensed with disclosure prohibitions, rights reserved under the copyright 254laws of the United States. 255 256<A HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/contact.html">LispWorks Ltd., 257St John's Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, 258Cambridge, 259CB4 0WS, 260England</A>.'' 261</BLOCKQUOTE> 262 263<A NAME="Disclaimer"><H3>Warranty disclaimer</H3></A> 264 265<B>THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, 266EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED 267WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND 268NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT WILL LISPWORKS BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, 269INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM 270ANY INACCURACY OR ERROR IN THIS DOCUMENT, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE 271POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.</B><P> 272 273<A NAME="Caveats"><H3>Additional Disclaimers</H3></A> 274 275Not all notations in that TeX-based document were possible to represent 276exactly in 277<A HREF="http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp.htm-spec/" 278>HTML</A>, although an attempt has been made to be as accurate as possible. 279Nevertheless, the process of translation was <I>heuristic</I>, and 280<I>discrepancies might have resulted</I>. 281Formally, <A HREF="#Ordering">the official ANSI printed document</A> 282is always the definitive reference.<P> 283 284The 285<A REL=META HREF="../Front/X3J13Iss.htm">X3J13 issue documents</A> 286are <I>not</I> part of the standard and are provided purely for historical 287perspective. It is possible that some of the documents, as included, 288 are not the final form that X3J13 voted, 289or that some which were voted were omitted, 290or that references from these documents into the source text are not complete, 291or that some edits prescribed by these documents were incorrectly implemented, 292or that other discrepancies exist between these documents and the 293specification. 294These documents have <I>no</I> formal weight, 295and in all cases, the <A HREF="#Ordering">hardcopy specification</A> 296is definitive. 297 298<A NAME="Trademarks"><H3>Trademarks</H3></A> 299 300LispWorks and Liquid Common Lisp are registered trademarks of 301<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A><P> 302 303The LispWorks logo and Common Lisp HyperSpec are trademarks of 304<A REV=MADE HREF="http://www.lispworks.com/">LispWorks Ltd.</A><P> 305 306All other brand and product names mentioned herein are trademarks or 307registered trademarks of their respective owners.<P> 308 309<HR> 310 311<A NAME="Trivia"><H2>Trivia</H2></A> 312 313The Common Lisp HyperSpec consumes approximately 15MB of disk storage 314in about 2300 files. It contains approximately 110,000 hyperlinks.<P> 315 316<HR> 317 318<A NAME="Bugs"><H2>Bug Reports</H2></A> 319 320Reports of discrepancies between 321the <A REL=TOP HREF="../Front/index.htm">Common Lisp HyperSpec</A> 322and the hardcopy form may be sent to 323<A REV=MADE HREF="mailto:kmp@lispworks.com">Kent Pitman <kmp@lispworks.com></A>.<P> 324 325Reports of bugs in the specification itself should be addressed to 326<A HREF="http://www.x3.org/tc_home/x3j13.htm">subcommittee X3J13</A>. 327 328<HR> 329 330<A REL=NAVIGATOR HREF="../Front/StartPts.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Starting Points]" SRC="../Graphics/StartPts.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A REL=TOC HREF="../Front/Contents.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Contents]" SRC="../Graphics/Contents.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A REL=INDEX HREF="../Front/X_Master.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Index]" SRC="../Graphics/Index.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A REL=INDEX HREF="../Front/X_Symbol.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Symbols]" SRC="../Graphics/Symbols.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A REL=GLOSSARY HREF="../Body/26_a.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Glossary]" SRC="../Graphics/Glossary.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><A HREF="../Issues/I_Categ.htm"><IMG WIDTH=80 HEIGHT=40 ALT="[Issues]" SRC="../Graphics/Issues.gif" ALIGN=Bottom></A><BR> 331 332<A REL=COPYRIGHT HREF="../Front/Help.htm#Legal"><I>Copyright 1996-2005, LispWorks Ltd. All Rights Reserved.</I></A><P> 333</BODY> 334</HTML> 335
