8.4.2 Grouping subdefinitions together

Some definition forms are macros that expand into a group of other definitions, for example defstruct . When the form is associated with a dspec class, the subdefinitions can be automatically recorded as being subforms of the new definition, by use of the dspec:def macro.

This means that the dspec system knows that the subdefinitions were inside the main definition (indeed, inside this particular form). Therefore

• Location queries can retrieve this information.
• The source location commands in the LispWorks IDE, when passed a subdefinition, know to search for the main definition given in the dspec:def .

Note: to make source location work you will also need a dspec:define-form-parser definition for the macro that expands into the dspec:def .

Note: dspec:def defines a relation between two particular definitions, for example (defstruct foo) and (defun make-foo) , not between the two dspec classes.