Special "Syntax" Notations for Overloaded Operators

ToC

Allegro CL

1 Introduction

1.4 Definitions

1.4.4 Interpreting Dictionary Entries

1.4.4.20 The "Syntax" Section of a Dictionary Entry

1.4.4.20.1 Special "Syntax" Notations for Overloaded Operators

If two descriptions exist for the same operation but with different numbers of arguments, then the extra arguments are to be treated as optional. For example, this pair of lines:

file-position stream position

file-position stream position-spec success-p

is operationally equivalent to this line:

file-position stream &optional position-spec result

and differs only in that it provides on opportunity to introduce different names for parameter and values for each case. The separated (multi-line) notation is used when an operator is overloaded in such a way that the parameters are used in different ways depending on how many arguments are supplied (e.g., for the function /) or the return values are different in the two cases (e.g., for the function file-position).