Function describe

Syntax:

Arguments and Values:

object—an object.

stream—an output stream designator. The default is standard output.

Description:

describe displays information about object to stream.

This used to be worded in a way which required these two behaviors in seeming contradiction to the remark about output being implementation-dependent. Barmar flagged this and I fixed it in a way that is hopefully non-controversial. -kmp 29-Dec-90For example, describe of a symbol might show the symbol's value, its definition, and each of its properties. describe of a float might show the number's internal representation in a way that is useful for tracking down round-off errors. In all cases, however, the nature and format of the output of describe is implementation-dependent.

25.3.0 13describe can describe something that it finds inside the object; in such cases, a notational device such as increased indentation or positioning in a table is typically used in order to visually distinguish such recursive descriptions from descriptions of the argument object.

The actual act of describing the object is implemented by describe-object. describe exists as an interface primarily to manage argument defaulting (including conversion of arguments t and nil into stream objects) and to inhibit any return values from describe-object.

describe is not intended to be an interactive function. In a conforming implementation, describe must not, by default, prompt for user input. User-defined methods for describe-object are likewise restricted.

Examples:

None.

Side Effects:

Output to standard output or terminal I/O.

Affected By:

*standard-output* and *terminal-io*, methods on describe-object and print-object for objects having user-defined classes.

Exceptional Situations:

None.

See Also:

inspect, describe-object

Notes:

None.