Christophe Rhodes wrote: > Bob Coyne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > I think it should say "Note: FOO declared special" rather > > than "Warning:..." > > > > The same information is conveyed with much less of a chance > > of alarming the newbie user. > > The newbie user _should be alarmed_, because the newbie has just > invoked undefined behaviour.
If I remember correctly, the other Lisps I've used (Allegro, Lispworks, Genera) only give warnings for this when you compile a form. You don't get warnings like this when typing in something to the listener/interpreter. They have a friendlier, more approachable feel because of it. So my suggestion was to split the difference and have it say "Note" when something like this is typed into a listener. That would be less off-putting than "Warning" to new users. And it would still let the user know that the variable hasn't been declared already (which is also useful for detecting when you've accidentally set a variable in the wrong package)..
