Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition


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10. Symbols

A Lisp symbol is a data object that has three user-visible components:

change_begin
X3J13 voted in March 1989 (CHARACTER-PROPOSAL)   to specify it is an error to alter a print name.
change_end

A symbol may actually have other components for use by the implementation. One of the more important uses of symbols is as names for program variables; it is frequently desirable for the implementor to use certain components of a symbol to implement the semantics of variables. See symbol-value and symbol-function. However, there are several possible implementation strategies, and so such possible components are not described here.




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