Not all modules of Jade are needed at once, autoload forms provide a means of marking that a function (or macro) is contained by a specific file of Lisp code. The first time that the function is accessed the autoload form will be evaluated; this loads the file that the function is contained by then re-evaluates the list form.
By then the autoload form will have been overwritten in the symbol's function slot by the true function (when it was loaded) so the form will execute properly.
An autoload form is a list whose first element is the symbol autoload,
for full details see section Autoloading.
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