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(cl)Overview

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Overview
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Common Lisp is a huge language, and Common Lisp systems tend to be
massive and extremely complex.  Emacs Lisp, by contrast, is rather
minimalist in the choice of Lisp features it offers the programmer.  As
Emacs Lisp programmers have grown in number, and the applications they
write have grown more ambitious, it has become clear that Emacs Lisp
could benefit from many of the conveniences of Common Lisp.

   The "CL" package adds a number of Common Lisp functions and control
structures to Emacs Lisp.  While not a 100% complete implementation of
Common Lisp, "CL" adds enough functionality to make Emacs Lisp
programming significantly more convenient.

   Some Common Lisp features have been omitted from this package for
various reasons:

   * Some features are too complex or bulky relative to their benefit
     to Emacs Lisp programmers.  CLOS and Common Lisp streams are fine
     examples of this group.

   * Other features cannot be implemented without modification to the
     Emacs Lisp interpreter itself, such as multiple return values,
     lexical scoping, case-insensitive symbols, and complex numbers.
     The "CL" package generally makes no attempt to emulate these
     features.

   * Some features conflict with existing things in Emacs Lisp.  For
     example, Emacs' `assoc' function is incompatible with the Common
     Lisp `assoc'.  In such cases, this package usually adds the suffix
     `*' to the function name of the Common Lisp version of the
     function (e.g., `assoc*').

   The package described here was written by Dave Gillespie,
`daveg@synaptics.com'.  It is a total rewrite of the original 1986
`cl.el' package by Cesar Quiroz.  Most features of the the Quiroz
package have been retained; any incompatibilities are noted in the
descriptions below.  Care has been taken in this version to ensure that
each function is defined efficiently, concisely, and with minimal
impact on the rest of the Emacs environment.

Usage

How to use the CL package

Organization

The package's five component files

Installation

Compiling and installing CL

Naming Conventions

Notes on CL function names