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From: pauls@inco.UUCP (Paul Stygar)
Newsgroups: comp.emacs
Subject: Re: gnuemacs programmers guide
Message-ID: <439@inco.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 1-Oct-87 12:10:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: inco.439
Posted: Thu Oct  1 12:10:50 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 5-Oct-87 07:04:22 EDT
References: <4755@ncoast.UUCP> <527@home.CSNET>
Organization: McDonnell Douglas-INCO, McLean, VA
Lines: 68
Summary: A do-it-yourself summary of forms


> Does anyone out there know of a programmers guide for gnuemacs?  After
> reviewing some of the source files I can do some minimal coding (being
> proficient in Common Lisp helps) but there are some things that would be
> difficult to know by just reading the code.  Even a summary of all of the
> forms would help (yes, I have looked at the documentation string but even
> that isn't enough).  Well, how about it?

Have you looked at the file /usr/local/emacs/etc/DOC ?  It has over 200KB.
Apparently it is what is used by the C-h f (describe-function) and the 
C-h v (describe-variable),  so it's relatively complete.
It's fairly close to a "summary of all the forms". 

Some cut&paste would be needed to put DOC into a outline suitable for
a programmer's manual.  About 80% of the material is organized: ie.,
logically related items often appear in sequence.  For example, to find
all the info on "mark",  there is no index,  so one does string searches,
and there are several clusters of info on "mark" scattered throughout.
Think of it as a gold mine.  Emacs provides all the tools needed to search
and retrieve the various treasures and potions et al.

The files TO_DO and TO-DO have RMS's wish list for GnuEmacs,  and LISP
Manual is definitely on the wish list.

Since DOC uses ^_F and ^_V to indicate the beginning of a describe-function
and a describe-variable entry respectively,  it was a useful exercise to
write some Gnu Lisp code to scan DOC and insert CR CR TAB in place of each
entry and wrap parentheses around each function:

(defun undoc () " Reformat DOC into a Forms Summary:
	Convert ^_Fstring to CR CR TAB (string) CR
	Convert ^_Vstring to CR CR TAB string CR "
 (while (not (eobp))
  (cond ((= (following-char) ?\C-_ )  
         (delete-char 1)
         (newline 2)
         (insert ?\t) 
         (cond ((= (following-char) ?V)
		(delete-char 1)
		(end-of-line))
               ((= (following-char) ?F)
		(delete-char 1)
                (insert ?( )
                (end-of-line)
                (insert ?) )))
         (newline)))
  (forward-char)))

To try this code,  put "undoc" in a file "undoc.el" in your work directory,
copy DOC to your directory, add the following to .emacs in your home
directory:

     (setq load-path (cons "/your-work-pwd" load-path))

Then just do "emacs DOC", M-ESC (load "undoc"), M-ESC (undoc) and wait ...
You can C-G to stop (undoc) at any point,  then just M-ESC (undoc) to resume.

The result:  a do-it-yourself Forms Summary.    Enjoy!


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