I'm aware of that but I've always been wary of doing (setf print-case :downcase) globally because it can break code. Consider this example: (let ((*print-cas

I'm aware of that but I've always been wary of doing (setf print-case :downcase) globally because it can break code. Consider this example: (let ((*print-case* :downcase) (my-symbol 'mine)) (intern (format nil "IT-IS-~A" my-symbol))) => |IT-IS-mine|, :INTERNAL Let's say print-case has been setf'd globally and my-symbol is an argument to a macro. The macro wants to derive a new symbol from my-symbol. But the result is ugly because the macro assumed print-case :upcase. There are many such examples in my and other people's code. edit: How do I prevent asterisked variable names from indicating italics?