The presentation method for pathnames is defined this way: (define-presentation-method present (object (type pathname) stream (view textual-view) &key acceptably for-context-type) (declare (ignore acceptably for-context-type)) (princ object stream)) At least in one app I've been working on, when I make the default for accepting be a LISP pathname, the system displays the s-expression form, rather than a more intuitive "real" Unix pathname. So I was wondering if it mightn't be better to use namestring than princ. But this won't work in some situations, because the pathname might not be complete (e.g., it's a default, so it has only a directory and a type and no filename). I'm afraid I don't understand pathnames (I only know enough to know that they almost never do what I want!) well enough to understand what would be a good substitute for princ... Thanks, r