Managing Multiple LISP Files

Managing Multiple LISP Files

LISP, FAS, and Other File Types

 

AutoLISP Developer's Guide > Using the Visual LISP Environment > Maintaining Visual LISP Applications > Managing Multiple LISP Files > 

Understanding Visual LISP Projects

To aid you in the process of maintaining multiple-file applications, VLISP provides a construct called a project. A VLISP project contains a list of AutoLISP source files, and a set of rules on how to compile the files. Using the project definition, VLISP can do the following:

• Check which .lsp files in your application have changed, and automatically recompile only the modified files. This procedure is known as a Make procedure.
• Simplify access to source files by listing all source files associated with a project, making them accessible with a single-click.
• Help you find code fragments by searching for strings when you do not know which source files contain the text you're looking for. VLISP limits the search to files included in your project.
• Optimize compiled code by directly linking the corresponding parts of multiple source files.

Before discussing how to define and use VLISP projects, it may help to introduce file types used in VLISP.