1 About This Manual

1.1 Contents of this manual

The next two chapters in this manual are introductory, and tell you about the system as a whole.

Chapter 2, "Introduction", presents a broad introduction to FreeLisp. It explains how to install and start the system up, and provides basic information about 'getting around'. This includes basic information on using the FreeLisp listener. A listener is a tool into which you can type Lisp code and which evaluates that code straight away.

Chapter 3, "Common Features", describes features which are common throughout the system. Many things, such as menu items, appear in every window. These generic features make FreeLisp simple and quick to use. This chapter shows what is consistent throughout the system. Later chapters may point to slight differences in particular tools.

Each of the remaining chapters in the manual describes a particular tool available in FreeLisp. Some chapters contain technical information that you will not necessarily need to know immediately. Any parts of the documentation that you can omit to begin with are clearly marked.

Chapter 4, "The Editor", describes the FreeLisp editor. This lets you compose, save and run your Common Lisp programs. Unlike the listener, which is best suited to evaluating short pieces of Lisp interactively, the editor is the tool you should use for running larger sections of code. You will probably make more use of the editor than any other tool, so it is worth studying this chapter carefully.

Note: A keyboard reference guide is also provided with the documentation. It serves as a reminder of many of the most useful and important commands in the editor and the listener. It can save you from searching through the documentation whenever you cannot remember a particular command.

Next, there are chapters on the inspector, class browser and generic function browser. These are tools which let you look at information about a particular part of the system. This can consist either of information about the Lisp system itself, or information about the Lisp code you have written. Chapter 5, "The Class Browser", describes a browser which lets you look at Common Lisp classes. Chapter 6, "The Inspector", describes a tool which allows you to inspect instances of class objects. Chapter 7, "The Generic Function Browser", describes a browser that lets you find out about generic functions and methods. If you do not know what classes, generic functions or methods are, do not worry. You will not need to use these tools until you do.

Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 explain the debugger and tracer respectively. These tools help you to discover errors in the code you are writing, and can greatly ease the task of fixing them. However, you will probably not use these tools until you are writing reasonably complicated code.

Finally, Chapter 10, "The Listener", describes the advanced features of FreeLisp's listener. Once again, you will not need to look at this chapter until you have a reasonable knowledge of Common Lisp.


FreeLisp User's Guide - 5 FEB 1996

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