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4.2 Inspect

The function inspect is an interactive version of describe. It displays objects in a similar way to describe. Entering the inspector causes a new level of the top loop to be entered with a special prompt indicating that the inspector has been entered and showing the current inspector level.

In the modified top loop, if you enter a slot name, that slot is inspected and the current object is pushed onto an internal stack of previously inspected objects. The special variables $, $$ and $$$ are bound to the top three objects on the inspector stack.

The following keywords are treated specially as commands by the inspector.

Inspector commands
CommandMeaning

:cv

Display current values of control variables.

:d

Display current object.

:dm

Display more of current object.

:dr

Display rest of current object.

:h

Display help on inspector commands.

:i m

Recursively invoke a new inspector. m is an object to inspect.

:m

Change the inspection mode — see 4.3 Inspection modes.

:q

Quit current inspector.

:s n v

Sets slot n to value v.

:sh

Show inspector stack.

:u int

Undo last inspection. If you supply an optional integer argument, int, then the last int inspections are undone.

:ud

Undo last inspection and redisplay current object.

You can get brief help listing these commands by entering :? at the inspector prompt.

The control variables *inspect-print-level* and *inspect-print-length* are similar to *describe-print-level* and *describe-print-length* (see above).

:dm displays more slots of the current object. If the object has more than *describe-length* slots, then the first *describe-length* will be printed, followed by an ellipsis and then:

(:dm or :dr for more)

If you enter the command :dm at the prompt it displays the next *describe-length* slots, and if you enter :dr it displays all the remaining slots. This only works on the last inspected object, so if you recursively inspect a slot and come back, :dm does not do anything useful. Typing :d lets you view the object again.

:ud is equivalent to typing :u followed by :d.


LispWorks® User Guide and Reference Manual - 01 Dec 2021 19:30:18