[Sbcl-help] Q: Different types of symbol-name (:key v :blah)

[Daniel B. <br...@wi...>]

Hello,

I run SBCL 1.0.22 on a Linux box and did the following:

* (type-of (symbol-name :key))

(SIMPLE-BASE-STRING 3)
* (type-of (symbol-name :blah))

(SIMPLE-ARRAY CHARACTER (4))


It seems that the "builtin" keyword symbols evaluate to
SIMPLE-BASE-STRING whereas "new" keyword symbols evaluate to SIMPLE-ARRAY.


I ran into this distinction because I wanted to feed CXML with a string
that has been generated from a keyword symbol. And CXML expects strings
as SIMPLE-ARRAY:

* (cxml:with-xml-output (cxml:make-string-sink) (cxml:with-element
(string-downcase (symbol-name :blah))))

"<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>
<blah/>"

But

(cxml:with-xml-output (cxml:make-string-sink) (cxml:with-element
(string-downcase (symbol-name :key))))

raises a type error.


Is this behaviour "normal" or intended? (I tested that on Clozure CL and
there both strings have the same type SIMPLE-BASE-STRING.


Kind regards, Daniel.
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