The workspace control procedures manipulate workspace "things" (procedures, variables, and property lists). You can use these procedures to erase, bury, unbury, and edit other procedures.

If a thing is erased, it is completely removed from the workspace. It is no longer usable or callable.

If a thing is buried, it is not included in the contents list output by CONTENTS, PROCEDURES, NAMES, or PLISTS but is included in the list output by BURIED. By implication, buried things are not printed by POALL or saved by SAVE. However, buried things are still usable; a buried procedure can still be called and a buried variable can still be used.

Typically, items are buried to keep them from cluttering up the workspace. For example, all Logolib procedures bury themselves after they are called so that they don't show up when you run EDALL.

Buried things can be completely restored to the workspace by unburying them (for example, with UNBURY).