false n. the symbol nil, used to represent the failure of a predicate test.
fbound ['ef,band] adj. (of a function name) bound in the function namespace. (The names of macros and special operators are fbound
false n. the symbol nil, used to represent the failure of a predicate test.
fbound ['ef,band] adj. (of a function name) bound in the function namespace. (The names of macros and special operators are fbound, but the nature and type of the object which is their value is implementation-dependent. Further, defining a setf expander F does not cause the setf function (setf F) to become defined; as such, if there is a such a definition of a setf expander F, the function (setf F) can be fbound if and only if, by design or coincidence, a function binding for (setf F) has been independently established.) See the functions fboundp and symbol-function.
feature n. 1. an aspect or attribute of Common Lisp, of the implementation, or of the environment. 2. a symbol that names a feature. See Section 24.1.2 (Features). ``The :ansi-cl feature is present in all conforming implementations.''
feature expression n. A boolean combination of features used by the #+ and #- reader macros in order to direct conditional reading of expressions by the Lisp reader. See Section 188.8.131.52 (Feature Expressions).
features list n. the list that is the value of *features*.
file n. a named entry in a file system, having an implementation-defined nature.
file compiler n. any compiler which compiles source code contained in a file, producing a compiled file as output. The compile-file function is the only interface to such a compiler provided by Common Lisp, but there might be other, implementation-defined mechanisms for invoking the file compiler.
file position n. (in a stream) a non-negative integer that represents a position in the stream. Not all streams are able to represent the notion of file position; in the description of any operator which manipulates file positions, the behavior for streams that don't have this notion must be explicitly stated. For binary streams, the file position represents the number of preceding bytes in the stream. For character streams, the constraint is more relaxed: file positions must increase monotonically, the amount of the increase between file positions corresponding to any two successive characters in the stream is implementation-dependent.
file position designator n. (in a stream) a designator for a file position in that stream; that is, the symbol :start (denoting 0, the first file position in that stream), the symbol :end (denoting the last file position in that stream; i.e., the position following the last element of the stream), or a file position (denoting itself).
file stream n. an object of type file-stream.
file system n. a facility which permits aggregations of data to be stored in named files on some medium that is external to the Lisp image and that therefore persists from session to session.
filename n. a handle, not necessarily ever directly represented as an object, that can be used to refer to a file in a file system. Pathnames and namestrings are two kinds of objects that substitute for filenames in Common Lisp.
fill pointer n. (of a vector) an integer associated with a vector that represents the index above which no elements are active. (A fill pointer is a non-negative integer no larger than the total number of elements in the vector. Not all vectors have fill pointers.)
finite adj. (of a type) having a finite number of elements. ``The type specifier (integer 0 5) denotes a finite type, but the type specifiers integer and (integer 0) do not.''
fixnum n. an integer of type fixnum.
float n. an object of type float.
for-value adj. (of a reference to a binding) being a reference that reads the value of the binding.
form n. 1. any object meant to be evaluated. 2. a symbol, a compound form, or a self-evaluating object. 3. (for an operator, as in ``<<operator>> form'') a compound form having that operator as its first element. ``A quote form is a constant form.''
formal argument n. Trad. a parameter.
formal parameter n. Trad. a parameter.
format v.t. (a format control and format arguments) to perform output as if by format, using the format string and format arguments.
format argument n. an object which is used as data by functions such as format which interpret format controls.
format control n. a format string, or a function that obeys the argument conventions for a function returned by the formatter macro. See Section 184.108.40.206 (Compiling Format Strings).
format directive n. 1. a sequence of characters in a format string which is introduced by a tilde, and which is specially interpreted by code which processes format strings to mean that some special operation should be performed, possibly involv