Typed CL -------- I love Common Lisp because it is the programmable programming language, but the one problem I have with it is that it is dynamically typed. I often find myself looking through code that others have written wondering 'just what is the type of this function argument or variable'. This package is an answer to my desire for more default type information in common lisp. Typed CL is an extension to Common Lisp which allows for the typed decleration of functions and variables. Under the hood, it takes the type information and writes the declerations for you, making your code not only easier to read and safer (due to compiler type checks), but it also gives the compiler more information for optimization and (should) make your code run faster. Some might say that dynamic typing is one of the best features of Common Lisp. The point of this project is twofold: during initial writing and during editing/optimization. You can hack with no types and add them in later, or you can write them in during inital coding. I find the syntax simpler and clearer than adding your own type declerations by themselves. Usage ----- Typed CL comes with an asdf package that can be loaded or required as needed. I will look into adding it to quicklisp in the future. Examples -------- A simple example: (def number square ((number x)) (* x x)) def is exactly like defun except for including the return type and function parameter types. A helper type 'list-of' is included to show how you can create programmably verified types for your parameters: (def integer sum (((list-of integer) l)) (vars ((integer sum 0)) (dolist (n l) (setf sum (+ sum n))) sum)) The above example also shows how to use the vars/vars* macros. ldef is the analog of labels with type information and follows the same convention/syntax as def. Essentially, adding type information just means to wrap your parameters/variables with an extra set of parens, and put the type of before the name and the default value after. The real benefit is with safety > 0. At least with SBCL it will give plenty of warnings when the types do not match what is defined in the signatures and declerations. Care has been taken to provide decent warning/error messages on invalid syntax but it's not perfect. Sometimes the messages are a bit hard to decipher. Any comments/feedback can be sent to my email address below. -- Burton Samograd <burton.samograd@gmail.com> http://kruhft.dyndns.org