setf
formsThis section describes how to define new forms that setf
can
operate on.
This macro enables you to easily define setf
methods for simple
cases. name is the name of a function, macro, or special form.
You can use this macro whenever name has a directly
corresponding setter function that updates it, e.g.,
(gv-define-simple-setter car setcar)
.
This macro translates a call of the form
(setf (name args…) value)
into
(setter args… value)
Such a setf
call is documented to return value. This is
no problem with, e.g., car
and setcar
, because
setcar
returns the value that it set. If your setter
function does not return value, use a non-nil
value for
the fix-return argument of gv-define-simple-setter
. This
expands into something equivalent to
(let ((temp value)) (setter args… temp) temp)
so ensuring that it returns the correct result.
This macro allows for more complex setf
expansions than the
previous form. You may need to use this form, for example, if there
is no simple setter function to call, or if there is one but it
requires different arguments to the place form.
This macro expands the form
(setf (name args…) value)
by
first binding the setf
argument forms
(value args…)
according to arglist,
and then executing body. body should return a Lisp
form that does the assignment, and finally returns the value that was
set. An example of using this macro is:
(gv-define-setter caar (val x) `(setcar (car ,x) ,val))
For more control over the expansion, the gv-define-expander
macro can be used. For instance, a settable substring
could be
implemented this way:
(gv-define-expander substring (lambda (do place from &optional to) (gv-letplace (getter setter) place (macroexp-let2* (from to) (funcall do `(substring ,getter ,from ,to) (lambda (v) (macroexp-let2* (v) `(progn ,(funcall setter `(cl--set-substring ,getter ,from ,to ,v)) ,v))))))))
The macro gv-letplace
can be useful in defining macros that
perform similarly to setf
; for example, the incf
macro
of Common Lisp could be implemented this way:
(defmacro incf (place &optional n) (gv-letplace (getter setter) place (macroexp-let2* ((v (or n 1))) (funcall setter `(+ ,v ,getter)))))
getter will be bound to a copyable expression that returns the value of place. setter will be bound to a function that takes an expression v and returns a new expression that sets place to v. body should return a Emacs Lisp expression manipulating place via getter and setter.
Consult the source file gv.el for more details.
This function makes the byte compiler warn that the generalized variable obsolete-name is obsolete. If current-name is a symbol, then the warning message says to use current-name instead of obsolete-name. If current-name is a string, this is the message. when should be a string indicating when the variable was first made obsolete (usually a version number string).
Common Lisp note: Common Lisp defines another way to specify the
setf
behavior of a function, namelysetf
functions, whose names are lists(setf name)
rather than symbols. For example,(defun (setf foo) …)
defines the function that is used whensetf
is applied tofoo
. Emacs does not support this. It is a compile-time error to usesetf
on a form that has not already had an appropriate expansion defined. In Common Lisp, this is not an error since the function(setf func)
might be defined later.