Package-local nicknames

Hello list,

long time no see :)

I'm once again experimenting on ABCL with a sort of a pet peeve of mine: hierarchical symbols (aka symbols as packages aka symbol/package conflation). If I get good results I'll submit an article to the next ELS. Btw, is anyone going?

I've seen that, since the time when I was actively contributing to it, ABCL has gained package-local nicknames (or, they were already there and I never noticed or I forgot about them). Since my experiment is, I suppose, a superset of what said nicknames have to offer, I'm curious: is anybody using them? How? Are they a novel idea of ABCL's, or were they inspired by other implementations? Do they implement some specification (e.g., a CDR)?

Thanks for any input!

Cheers Alessio