OK, so I have a package reference in my init file...

[p2@Porter.ASL.dialnet.symbolics.com (Peter Paine)]

    ... but the world I load might not have that package defined (either
    yet, or will never at all). How can I put a reference to the package in
    my init, but with a test so I dont crash on undefined package for the	
    worlds where that aint loaded. (Using package bind does not help but I'm
    not sure why that crashes too, even though I no longer have a form like
    package-name:symbol)

     Am I thinking about this correctly? Thanks.

    Best,
    PANgaro

As often happens here, we seem to have only caught the tail of your
conversation.

Is this what you are trying to do:

(defun APPLY-IF-PACKAGE (package-name function &rest args)
  (when (find-package package-name)
    (apply (intern (string-upcase function) package-name)
	   args)))

#|| (apply-in-package 'cl-user 'format nil "~:(~A~)" 'test) ||#

<= p2