13 Doc

Function: APROPOS (string &optional (package nil))

Package:LISP

Prints those symbols whose print-names contain STRING as substring. If PACKAGE is non-NIL, then only the specified package is searched.

Function: INFO (string &optional (list-of-info-files *default-info-files*))

PACKAGE:SI

Find all documentation about STRING in LIST-OF-INFO-FILES. The search is done for STRING as a substring of a node name, or for STRING in the indexed entries in the first index for each info file. Typically that should be a variable and function definition index, if the info file is about a programming language. If the windowing system is connected, then a choice box is offered and double clicking on an item brings up its documentation.

Otherwise a list of choices is offered and the user may select some of these choices.

list-of-info-files is of the form

 ("gcl-si.info" "gcl-tk.info" "gcl.info")

The above list is the default value of *default-info-files*, a variable in the SI package. To find these files in the file system, the search path *info-paths* is consulted as is the master info directory dir.

see *Index *default-info-files*:: and *Index *info-paths*::. For example

(info "defun")

 0: DEFUN :(gcl-si.info)Special Forms and Functions.
 1: (gcl.info)defun.
Enter n, all, none, or multiple choices eg 1 3 : 1

Info from file /home/wfs/gcl-doc/gcl.info:
defun                                                               [Macro]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
`Defun'  function-name lambda-list [[{declaration}* | documentation]]
...

would list the node (gcl.info)defun. That is the node entitled defun from the info file gcl.info. That documentation is based on the ANSI common lisp standard. The choice

DEFUN :(gcl-si.info)Special Forms and Functions.

refers to the documentation on DEFUN from the info file gcl-si.info in the node Special Forms And Functions. This is an index reference and only the part of the node which refers to defun will be printed.

(info "factor" '("maxima.info"))

would search the maxima info files index and nodes for factor.

Variable: *info-paths*

Package SI:

A list of strings such as

  '("" "/usr/info/" "/usr/local/lib/info/" "/usr/local/info/"
    "/usr/local/gnu/info/" )

saying where to look for the info files. It is used implicitly by info, see *Index info::.

Looking for maxima.info would look for the file maxima.info in all the directories listed in *info-paths*. If nto found then it would look for dir in the *info-paths* directories, and if it were found it would look in the dir for a menu item such as

* maxima: (/home/wfs/maxima-5.0/info/maxima.info).

If such an entry exists then the directory there would be used for the purpose of finding maxima.info