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| ANSI Common Lisp 26 Glossary 26.1 Glossary # N name: n., v.t. 1. n. an identifier by which an object, a binding, or an exit point is referred to by association using a binding. 2. v.t. to give a name to. 3. n. (of an object having a name component) the object which is that component. The string which is a symbol's name is returned by symbol-name. 4. n. (of a pathname) a. the name component, returned by pathname-name. b. the entire namestring, returned by namestring. 5. n. (of a character) a string that names the character and that has length greater than one. (All non-graphic characters are required to have names unless they have some implementation-defined attribute which is not null. Whether or not other characters have names is implementation-dependent.) named constant: n. a variable that is defined by Common Lisp, by the implementation, or by user code (see the macro defconstant) to always yield the same value when evaluated. The value of a named constant may not be changed by assignment or by binding. namespace: n. 1. bindings whose denotations are restricted to a particular kind. The bindings of names to tags is the tag namespace. 2. any mapping whose domain is a set of names. A package defines a namespace. namestring: n. a string that represents a filename using either the standardized notation for naming logical pathnames described in Section 19.3.1 Syntax of Logical Pathname Namestrings, or some implementation-defined notation for naming a physical pathname. newline: n. the standard character <Newline>, notated for the Lisp reader as `#\Newline`. next method: n. the next method to be invoked with respect to a given method for a particular set of arguments or argument classes. See Section 7.6.6.1.3 Applying method combination to the sorted list of applicable methods. nickname: n. (of a package) one of possibly several names that can be used to refer to the package but that is not the primary name of the package. nil: n. the object that is at once the symbol named `"NIL"` in the `common-lisp` package, the empty list, the boolean (or generalized boolean) representing false, and the name of the empty type. non-atomic: adj. being other than an atom; i.e., being a cons. non-constant variable: n. a variable that is not a constant variable. non-correctable: adj. (of an error) not intentionally correctable. (Because of the dynamic nature of restarts, it is neither possible nor generally useful to completely prohibit an error from being correctable. This term is used in order to express an intent that no special effort should be made by code signaling an error to make that error correctable; however, there is no actual requirement on conforming programs or conforming implementations imposed by this term.) non-empty: adj. having at least one element. non-generic function: n. a function that is not a generic function. non-graphic: adj. (of a character) not graphic. See Section 13.1.4.1 Graphic Characters. non-list: n., adj. other than a list; i.e., a non-nil atom. non-local exit: n. a transfer of control (and sometimes values) to an exit point for reasons other than a normal return. The operators go, throw, and return-from cause a non-local exit. non-nil: n., adj. not nil. Technically, any object which is not nil can be referred to as true, but that would tend to imply a unique view of the object as a generalized boolean. Referring to such an object as non-nil avoids this implication. non-null lexical environment: n. a lexical environment that has additional information not present in the global environment, such as one or more bindings. non-simple: adj. not simple. non-terminating: adj. (of a macro character) being such that it is treated as a constituent character when it appears in the middle of an extended token. See Section 2.2 Reader Algorithm. non-top-level form: n. a form that, by virtue of its position as a subform of another form, is not a top level form. See Section 3.2.3.1 Processing of Top Level Forms. normal return: n. the natural transfer of control and values which occurs after the complete execution of a form. normalized: adj., ANSI, IEEE (of a float) conforming to the description of "normalized" as described by IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic. See denormalized. null: adj., n. 1. adj. a. (of a list) having no elements: empty. See empty list. b. (of a string) having a length of zero. (It is common, both within this document and in observed spoken behavior, to refer to an empty string by an apparent definite reference, as in "the null string" even though no attempt is made to intern2 null strings. The phrase "a null string" is technically more correct, but is generally considered awkward by most Lisp programmers. As such, the phrase "the null string" should be treated as an indefinite reference in all cases except for anaphoric references.) c. (of an implementation-defined attribute of a character) An object to which the value of that attribute defaults if no specific value was requested. 2. n. an object of type null (the only such object being nil). null lexical environment: n. the lexical environment which has no bindings. number: n. an object of type number. numeric: adj. (of a character) being one of the standard characters `0` through 9, or being some other graphic character defined by the implementation to be numeric.

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