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From: uda@majestix.ida.liu.se (Ulf Dahlen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: DeKleer's ATMS: the continuing saga
Message-ID: <1338@majestix.ida.liu.se>
Date: 29 Aug 89 17:43:23 GMT
References: <19543@usc.edu>
Organization: CIS Dept, Univ of Linkoping, Sweden
Lines: 27

In article <19543@usc.edu> burke@pollux.usc.edu (Sean Burke) writes:
>   I have looked in vain in CLTL for a specification that format should use
>the canonical print-name of a symbol, unless you count p304, "To get the string
>representation of a number or any other Lisp object, use prin1-to-string,
>princ-to-string, or format."  The functions which are specified to return
>a symbol's print-name, "symbol-name" and "string" get no mention. Hmmm.

In CLtL page 387 the ~A directive to FORMAT is explained. It says the 
the argument is printed without escape characters, as by PRINC. (Compare
~S where the argument is printed as by prin1 instead.)

So, you would expect (FORMAT nil "~A" 'foo) to return a string with FOO
as printed by PRINC. Now, all printing functions are governed by a couple
of variables, one of them beeing *PRINT-CASE*. If *PRINT-CASE* is :UPCASE
symbols will be printed in upper-case, if it's :DOWNCASE symbols will be 
printed in lower-case.

Binding *PRINT-CASE* to :UPCASE around the FORMAT should work. However,
a better solution is (FORMAT nil "~A" (STRING 'FOO)) which will always
give the internal print-name of FOO.
__________
Ulf Dahlen
Dept of Computer & Info Science, University of Linkoping, Sweden
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"The beginning is a very delicate time."