Function proclaim

Syntax:

Arguments and Values:

declaration-specifier—a declaration specifier.

Description:

9.1.0 11Establishes the declaration specified by declaration-specifier in the global environment.

9.1.0 13Such a declaration, sometimes called a global declaration or a proclamation, is always in force unless locally shadowed.

9.1.0 12Names of variables and functions within declaration-specifier refer to dynamic variables and global function definitions, respectively.

The next figure shows a list of declaration identifiers that can be used with proclaim.

IGNORE, IGNORABLE, and DYNAMIC-EXTENT removed as consequence of vote taken at 5-Oct-93 X3J13 meeting.

function removed.

9.2.0 20An implementation is free to support other (implementation-defined) declaration identifiers as well.

Examples:

 (defun declare-variable-types-globally (type vars)
   (proclaim `(type ,type ,@vars))
   type)

 ;; Once this form is executed, the dynamic variable *TOLERANCE*
 ;; must always contain a float.
 (declare-variable-types-globally 'float '(*tolerance*))
→ FLOAT

Affected By:

None.

Exceptional Situations:

None.

See Also:

declaim, declare, Section 3.2 (Compilation)

Notes:

Although the execution of a proclaim form has effects that might affect compilation, the compiler does not make any attempt to recognize and specially process proclaim forms. A proclamation such as the following, even if a top level form, does not have any effect until it is executed:

(proclaim '(special *x*))

If compile time side effects are desired, eval-when may be useful. For example:

 (eval-when (:execute :compile-toplevel :load-toplevel)
   (proclaim '(special *x*)))

In most such cases, however, it is preferrable to use declaim for this purpose.

Since proclaim forms are ordinary function forms, macro forms can expand into them. Barrett: So what? Sandra: DUMB! KMP: Tough. I think this is a commonly asked question, and perfectly appropriate for a Note even though it's not a revelation. Technically, anything in the Notes should be describable as "so what?" or "dumb" or we should ask why it's in the Notes and not the Description.