Notes about The KEYWORD Package (ANSI and GNU Common Lisp Document)

Next: Implementation-Defined Packages, Previous: Interning a Symbol in the KEYWORD Package, Up: Standardized Packages

#### 11.1.2.8 Notes about The KEYWORD Package

It is generally best to confine the use of keywords to situations in which there are a finitely enumerable set of names to be selected between. For example, if there were two states of a light switch, they might be called `:on` and `:off`.

In situations where the set of names is not finitely enumerable (i.e., where name conflicts might arise) it is frequently best to use symbols in some package other than `KEYWORD` so that conflicts will be naturally avoided. For example, it is generally not wise for a program to use a keyword_1 as a property indicator, since if there were ever another program that did the same thing, each would clobber the other’s data.