proclaim [Function]

proclaim declaration-specifier => implementation-dependent

Arguments and Values::

declaration-specifier---a declaration specifier.

Description::

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

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

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

Figure 3--22 shows a list of declaration identifiers that can be used with proclaim.

declaration inline optimize type ftype notinline special

Figure 3--22: Global Declaration Specifiers

An 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

See Also::

section declaim [Macro] , declare, section 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.

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