because COMMON-LISP-USER uses COMMON-LISP. Or you can use a package-qualified name.

    2. #<The COMMON-LISP-USER package>

    But *X* isn’t a symbol in COMMON-LISP, so you if type this:

    1. *X*

    The REPL can’t start in the package because you’re not allowed to intern new symbols in it; COMMON-LISP-USER serves as a “scratch” package where you can create your own names while still having easy access to all the symbols in COMMON-LISP.3 Typically, all packages you’ll define will also use COMMON-LISP, so you don’t have to write things like this:

    1. CL-USER> :a
    2. CL-USER> keyword:a
    3. :A
    4. T