Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!iuvax!dyb
From: dyb@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Subject: Re: SETQ vs DEFVAR at the top level
Message-ID: <20700005@iuvax>
Date: 2 Jul 88 03:57:00 GMT
References: <4431@medusa.cs.purdue.edu>
Organization: Indiana University CSCI, Bloomington
Lines: 11
Nf-ID: #R:medusa.cs.purdue.edu:-443100:iuvax:20700005:000:384
Nf-From: iuvax.cs.indiana.edu!dyb    Jul  1 22:57:00 1988


>That's right, friends.  DEFVAR implicitly PROCLAIMs its variable to be
>SPECIAL, while SETQ does not.  A variable PROCLAIMed SPECIAL by DEFVAR
>cannot be used as a lexical variable...

     Corollary: Want to screw up a friend's Common Lisp session?  Type
"(defvar x nil)" when your friend isn't watching.

     Or better yet, put the defvar into your friend's Lisp init file.

Kent