This variable provides defaults for all character type parameters. The legal values are base-char , lw:simple-char , and character . Its value must only be set via a call to lw:set-default-character-element-type .
This is intended mainly for running old 8-bit applications efficiently. If you write for a fat character implementation you should already be aware of these issues, and make some attempt to provide explicit types.
The compiler always behaves as if this variable was bound to character ; if you want assumptions about types to be hard-coded into your program, you must supply explicit declarations and type arguments.