One of the main benefits of using the built-in editor is the large number of keyboard and menu commands available which can work directly on Lisp code. As well as providing editing facilities which work intelligently in a buffer containing Lisp code, there are commands which let you load, evaluate or compile the code in any part of a buffer easily and quickly.
In addition, a high degree of integration exists between other Common LispWorks tools and the editor. This allows you, for example, to find the source code definition of an object being examined in a browser, or to flag symbols in editor buffers for specific actions, such as tracing or lambda list printing.
This section provides an introduction to the Lisp-specific facilities that are available using menu commands. For a full description of the extended editor commands, please refer to the Editor User Guide .
All of the commands described below are available in the editor's Buffers , Definitions , and Expression menus. They operate on the current buffers, definitions, or expression, the choice of which is affected by the current view. In the Text view, the Buffers menu applies to the currently visible buffer, the Definitions menu applies to the highlighted definitions or to the definition under the cursor and the Expression menu depends on the exact location of the cursor, as described below. In the Buffers view, the Buffers menu applies to all the selected buffers and the Definitions and Expression menus are not available. In the Definitions, Changed Definitions and Find Definitions views, the Definitions menu applies to the selected definitions and the Buffers and Expression menus are not available.
An expression is the symbol over which the cursor is positioned (or the one immediately before it if it is not on a symbol), and a definition is the definition in which that symbol occurs.
(defun test ()
(test2))
In the function shown above, if the cursor were placed on the letter "e" of test2 , the expression would be the symbol test2 , and the definition would be test .
In this section, the term "current definition(s)" is used to denote either the definition under the cursor (in the text view), or the selected definitions (in either the definitions or the find definitions views).