stupid zetalisp question about /

[RWK@fuji.ila.com (Robert W. Kerns)]

    Date: Mon, 1 Jul 91 17:18:10 -0600
    From: drstrip@cs.sandia.gov (David R. Strip)

    I am trying to create the string "/*" (*comment-begin* for
    c-mode) in a function defined in a file with zetalisp syntax.
    Needless to say if you type "/*", the string is really "*". 
    What I don't understand is why "//*" is "//*" instead of
    "/*". 

It's not; you're confusing yourself.  Reading "//*" gives the
two-character string with #\/ and #/*.  But PRINT and
READ must be consistent, so that calling READ on the output
of PRINT must yield a string with the same characters.

So if you do (PRINT (READ)) "//*", you'll see "//*",
but if you do (CL:LENGTH (READ)) "//*" you'll see 2,
and if you do (CL:COERCE (READ) 'LIST) "//*", you'll see
(#// #/*)

The same thing will happen in Common Lisp syntax, with
the character \.