Subject: Re: Parsing strings into LISP syntax From: Erik Naggum <firstname.lastname@example.org> Date: 1999/11/06 Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp Message-ID: <email@example.com> * Pascal Saremsky | Because the second intern returns an instance of the same symbol. Please | correct me if I'm wrong, otherwise this works fine for me! almost correct: INTERN returns the exact same value every time¹. the whole point with INTERN is precisely that: to return _the_ symbol that has the name given by the argument, so if the two strings are EQUAL (that is, STRING=), then the symbols returned will be EQ. you may have gotten this point, already, but your wording left an ambiguity -- symbols don't have instances, they _are_ instances. #:Erik, persnicketeer ------- ¹ barring intervening UNINTERN calls or changes to *PACKAGE*. -- Attention Microsoft Shoppers! MS Monopoly Money 6.0 are now worthless.