keep both @code{find-thing} and @code{member*} from complaining
about each others' keywords in the arguments.
-As a (significant) performance optimization, this package
-implements the scan for keyword arguments by calling @code{memq}
-to search for keywords in a ``rest'' argument. Technically
-speaking, this is incorrect, since @code{memq} looks at the
-odd-numbered values as well as the even-numbered keywords.
-The net effect is that if you happen to pass a keyword symbol
-as the @emph{value} of another keyword argument, where that
-keyword symbol happens to equal the name of a valid keyword
-argument of the same function, then the keyword parser will
-become confused. This minor bug can only affect you if you
-use keyword symbols as general-purpose data in your program;
-this practice is strongly discouraged in Emacs Lisp.
-
The fifth section of the argument list consists of @dfn{auxiliary
variables}. These are not really arguments at all, but simply
variables which are bound to @code{nil} or to the specified
Common Lisp compliance has in general not been sacrificed for the
sake of efficiency. A few exceptions have been made for cases
where substantial gains were possible at the expense of marginal
-incompatibility. One example is the use of @code{memq} (which is
-treated very efficiently by the byte-compiler) to scan for keyword
-arguments; this can become confused in rare cases when keyword
-symbols are used as both keywords and data values at once. This
-is extremely unlikely to occur in practical code, and the use of
-@code{memq} allows functions with keyword arguments to be nearly
-as fast as functions that use @code{&optional} arguments.
+incompatibility.
The Common Lisp standard (as embodied in Steele's book) uses the
phrase ``it is an error if'' to indicate a situation which is not
keyword does not work in @code{defmacro} argument lists (except
inside recursive argument lists).
-In order to allow an efficient implementation, keyword arguments use
-a slightly cheesy parser which may be confused if a keyword symbol
-is passed as the @emph{value} of another keyword argument.
-(Specifically, @code{(memq :@var{keyword} @var{rest-of-arguments})}
-is used to scan for @code{:@var{keyword}} among the supplied
-keyword arguments.)
-
The @code{eql} and @code{equal} predicates do not distinguish
between IEEE floating-point plus and minus zero. The @code{equalp}
predicate has several differences with Common Lisp; @pxref{Predicates}.