RE: IDE

[Drew Adams]

> > Where "definition" can be whatever you want, AFAIK.
> 
> "Definition" in this context means the implementation.  There's only
> one implementation, but there might be many references
> (a.k.a. "calls").

That just assumes that you index only the "implementation".

In principle, a TAGS file could be created (including on the
fly) from not only "the implementation" files but also the
"calls" files.

> > A TAGS file is just an index.  You can index whatever you like,
> > AFAIK.
> 
> An index where the key is the symbol itself can only hold one instance
> of every symbol.

Is a TAGS file limited to symbols?  I didn't think so.

And I definitely have TAGS files that have multiple entries
for the same symbol definition.  The definitions are from
different source files, but they are in the same TAGS file
(in different sections, separated by form-feed chars).

For example:

^L
frame-cmds-OLD.el,1980
(defun iconify-everything ()iconify-everything
298,11152
...
^L
frame-cmds.el,1890
(defun iconify-everything ()iconify-everything
141,5218