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23.2.4 define* Reference

Just like define has a shorthand notation for defining procedures (see Lambda Alternatives), define* is provided as an abbreviation of the combination of define and lambda*.

define*-public is the lambda* version of define-public; defmacro* and defmacro*-public exist for defining macros with the improved argument list handling possibilities. The -public versions not only define the procedures/macros, but also export them from the current module.

define* formals body	library syntax
define*-public formals body	library syntax

define* and define*-public support optional arguments with a similar syntax to lambda*. They also support arbitrary-depth currying, just like Guile's define. Some examples: (define* (x y #:optional a (z 3) #:key w . u) (display (list y z u))) defines a procedure x with a fixed argument y, an optional argument a, another optional argument z with default value 3, a keyword argument w, and a rest argument u. (define-public* ((foo #:optional bar) #:optional baz) '()) This illustrates currying. A procedure foo is defined, which, when called with an optional argument bar, returns a procedure that takes an optional argument baz. Of course, define*[-public] also supports #:rest and #:allow-other-keys in the same way as lambda*.

defmacro* name formals body	library syntax
defmacro*-public name formals body	library syntax

These are just like defmacro and defmacro-public except that they take lambda*-style extended parameter lists, where #:optional, #:key, #:allow-other-keys and #:rest are allowed with the usual semantics. Here is an example of a macro with an optional argument: (defmacro* transmorgify (a #:optional b) (a 1))