+ Jean-Christophe Helary <fusion@mx6.tiki.ne.jp>: | How is it possible to give the :external-format argument when doing C- | c C-l ? | Or rather, is there a way to inform SLIME that the external format is | UTF-8 by default ? This answer is getting long-ish, because I want to show you how you could discover the answer to these questions on your own ... In a lisp buffer, type C-h k C-c C-l. You get a help buffer saying C-c C-l runs the command slime-load-file which is an interactive Lisp function in `slime'. Click on the underlined word `slime'. This will take you to the definition of slime-load-file in slime.el: (defun slime-load-file (filename) "Load the Lisp file FILENAME." (interactive (list (read-file-name "Load file: " nil nil nil (if (buffer-file-name) (file-name-nondirectory (buffer-file-name)))))) (let ((lisp-filename (slime-to-lisp-filename (expand-file-name filename)))) (slime-eval-with-transcript `(swank:load-file ,lisp-filename)))) Evidently, there is no ready made way to do what you want: It eventually runs (swank:load-file lisp-filename) in the backend lisp. So you can look up that function: In the slime-repl buffer, run (describe #'swank:load-file). Not terribly helpful. But you can place the cursor over the function name and type M-. (meta-period) which will lead you to the function definition: (defslimefun load-file (filename) (to-string (load filename))) So if you were to say (in-package :swank) (defslimefun load-file (filename) (to-string (load filename :external-format charset:utf-8))) and arrange for this to be loaded after swank.lisp, you should have what you want. The alternative is to tell your lisp to use UTF-8 as the default charset for all load operations. You will have to study the Lisp's documentation for hints on how to do that. - Harald