1.1 About this manual

This manual describes the features and tools available in LispWorks, and how to use them.

The first group of chapters in this book describes some of the central programming tools and features in LispWorks:

• Starting LispWorks describes how to start LispWorks and supply command line arguments.
• The Listener describes the read-eval-print loop (REPL) listener.
• The Debugger describes the REPL debugger.
• The REPL Inspector describes the REPL inspector.
• The Trace Facility.
• The Advice Facility.
• Dspecs: Tools for Handling Definitions describes the naming system for Lisp definitions, and in particular how to locate these.
• Action Lists describes how you can run code at various hook points.
• The Compiler.
• Storage Management, covers the use of the garbage collector.
• The Profiler.

The next chapter, Customization of LispWorks, explains how to perform some commonly required customizations, such as controlling start-up appearance of LispWorks.

The next group of chapters describe features of specialist interest.

• The Metaobject Protocol.
• Multiprocessing, including locks.
• Common Defsystem describes how to use defsystem to combine a series of source files into a manageable project.
• The Parser Generator.
• Dynamic Data Exchange describes how to implement DDE functionality in your Microsoft Windows applications.
• Common SQL explains how to use LispWorks to communicate with databases using SQL.
• User Defined Streams provides an illustrative example showing how to define and implement your own streams.
• Socket Stream SSL interface describes the use of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) with socket streams.
• Internationalization provides an overview of using international characters.
• LispWorks' Operating Environment explains how to find information about the Operating System and how LispWorks was started.
• 64-bit LispWorks outlines differences between 64-bit LispWorks and 32-bit LispWorks.

Please note that documentation for Graphics Ports has been moved to the LispWorks CAPI User Guide and LispWorks CAPI Reference Manual .