Jan Vroonhof <vroonhof(a)math.ethz.ch&gt; writes: Yes, but we still have the historical crap to think about. The keyword arguments must follow the normal arguments, even the optional ones. Regard this entry from the Lisp FAQ: [3-0] Why does (READ-FROM-STRING "foobar" :START 3) return FOOBAR instead of BAR? READ-FROM-STRING is one of the rare functions that takes both &OPTIONAL and &KEY arguments: READ-FROM-STRING string &OPTIONAL eof-error-p eof-value &KEY :start :end :preserve-whitespace When a function takes both types of arguments, all the optional arguments must be specified explicitly before any of the keyword arguments may be specified. In the example above, :START becomes the value of the optional EOF-ERROR-P parameter and 3 is the value of the optional EOF-VALUE parameter. To get the desired result, you should use (READ-FROM-STRING "foobar" t nil :START 3) If you need to understand and use the optional arguments, please refer to CLTL2 under READ-FROM-STRING, otherwise, this will behave as desired for most purposes. So, adding keyword arguments to a function that already accepts a bunch of optional arguments (for historical reasons) would only introduce *more* problems and confusion. -- Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic(a)srce.hr&gt; | Student at FER Zagreb, Croatia --------------------------------+-------------------------------- The end of the world is coming... SAVE YOUR BUFFERS!