Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition

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28.1.6.5. Keyword Arguments in Generic Functions and Methods

When a generic function or any of its methods mentions &key in a lambda-list, the specific set of keyword arguments accepted by the generic function varies according to the applicable methods. The set of keyword arguments accepted by the generic function for a particular call is the union of the keyword arguments accepted by all applicable methods and the keyword arguments mentioned after &key in the generic function definition, if any. A method that has &rest but not &key does not affect the set of acceptable keyword arguments. If the lambda-list of any applicable method or of the generic function definition contains &allow-other-keys, all keyword arguments are accepted by the generic function.

The lambda-list congruence rules require that each method accept all of the keyword arguments mentioned after &key in the generic function definition, by accepting them explicitly, by specifying &allow-other-keys, or by specifying &rest but not &key. Each method can accept additional keyword arguments of its own, in addition to the keyword arguments mentioned in the generic function definition.

If a generic function is passed a keyword argument that no applicable method accepts, an error is signaled.

For example, suppose there are two methods defined for width as follows:

(defmethod width ((c character-class) &key font) ...)

(defmethod width ((p picture-class) &key pixel-size) ...)

Assume that there are no other methods and no generic function definition for width. The evaluation of the following form will signal an error because the keyword argument :pixel-size is not accepted by the applicable method.

(width (make-instance 'character-class :char #\Q) 
       :font 'baskerville :pixel-size 10)

The evaluation of the following form will signal an error.

(width (make-instance 'picture-class :glyph (glyph #\Q)) 
       :font 'baskerville :pixel-size 10)

The evaluation of the following form will not signal an error if the class named character-picture-class is a subclass of both picture-class and character-class.

(width (make-instance 'character-picture-class :char #\Q) 
       :font 'baskerville :pixel-size 10)

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