In Lisp, interning is not only used for saving on string comparisons. It's the basis of the symbol abstraction. Or perhaps not the basis, but interning is the o

In Lisp, interning is not only used for saving on string comparisons. It's the basis of the symbol abstraction. Or perhaps not the basis, but interning is the only way symbols can correspond to a printed representation. Without interning, we don't have it that A and A are the same object. A symbol being an object with a durable identity is important because it can have properties other than just the string which gives it a name.