Another item that needs a clarification and I don't see it listed in the page is the one discussed in https://trac.clozure.com/ccl/ticket/1389 and https://trac.clozure.com/ccl/ticket/1082 Spec is not explicit, and currently different implementations do different things. TL; DR: (let ((*print-circle* t) (name "q")) (format nil "~A ~A" name name)) ==> ?