This is a quick syntax helper for Icon users that work with GNU Emacs.
The idea is a simple one: while creating a program, say, you're unsure
about the arguments or their orders for push(). With icon-describe, you
simple execute the function "describe-icon-symbol" with point
somewhere around the word push, and the following information
is displayed in the mini-buffer:

push(list,x)

This works with procedures, infix/prefix operators, control
structures/reserved words, and keywords. Note that you get notified if
something isn't in the documentation file, so you can also use it to
check whether you've got the right symbol name or not (but you'd have
to actually go look at the file to see what the _right_ one is).


Caveats:

See your Emacs manual for how to load this automatically when you
visit .icn files (look at auto-mode-alist and icon-mode-hook, assuming
you're using an icon-mode).

describe-icon-symbol is not initially bound to a key, but you'll
probably want to do so.

The format of the documentation file is one to a line: this is nice
because it can be displayed in the minibuffer instead of a pop-up
which then has to be gotten rid of. It's not so nice in that it limits
the amount of information pretty severely. If somebody wants to
provide a larger documentation file i might provide a pop-up version
(or some hybrid): i'm too lazy to do all the typing, for one thing!
There's also an uneven mix of bare syntax description with some
discussion of what (especially prefix) operators do. A few keywords
have no description because they're newer than the Icon book, and i
didn't have a description handy. Please contribute to this doc file if
you can!

The function which determines the symbol at point isn't perfect
(surprise surprise!). In particular it depends on the syntax tables to
determine what punctuation is, so if your syntax tables aren't right,
this won't be either. I'm open to suggestions for better algorithms.
The current version has a preference for looking backward if not
actually on part of a symbol: this seemed more useful for those cases
where you become hesitant about the arguments to a function just after
typing it.

While the usual lack of warranty and support applies, i'd still like
to hear if there are problems with this.

Sean Boisen
BBN Systems and Technologies Corporation


Two files follow: i call the first icon-describe.el (don't forget to
byte-compile it!), and the second icondoc.txt. Whatever you decide to
call the latter, make sure you set the variable icon-doc-file accordingly!