Package Prefixes for Symbols (ANSI and GNU Common Lisp Document)

Next: Effect of Readtable Case on the Lisp Printer, Previous: Printing Symbols, Up: Default Print-Object Methods

#### 22.1.3.9 Package Prefixes for Symbols

Package prefixes are printed if necessary. The rules for package prefixes are as follows. When the symbol is printed, if it is in the `KEYWORD` package, then it is printed with a preceding colon; otherwise, if it is accessible in the current package, it is printed without any package prefix; otherwise, it is printed with a package prefix.

A symbol that is apparently uninterned is printed preceded by “`#:`”

if *print-gensym* is true and printer escaping is enabled; if *print-gensym* is false or printer escaping is disabled,

then the symbol is printed without a prefix, as if it were in the current package.

Because the `#:` syntax does not intern the following symbol, it is necessary to use circular-list syntax if *print-circle* is true and the same uninterned symbol appears several times in an expression to be printed. For example, the result of

     (let ((x (make-symbol "FOO"))) (list x x))

would be printed as `(#:foo #:foo)` if *print-circle* were false, but as `(#1=#:foo #1#)` if *print-circle* were true.

A summary of the preceding package prefix rules follows:

`foo:bar`

  `foo:bar` is printed when symbol `bar` is external in its home package `foo` and is not accessible in the current package.

`foo::bar`

  `foo::bar` is printed when `bar` is internal in its home package `foo` and is not accessible in the current package.

`:bar`

  `:bar` is printed when the home package of `bar` is the `KEYWORD` package.

#:bar

  `#:bar` is printed when `bar` is apparently uninterned, even in the pathological case that `bar` has no home package but is nevertheless somehow accessible in the current package.

Next: Effect of Readtable Case on the Lisp Printer, Previous: Printing Symbols, Up: Default Print-Object Methods