This actually looks pretty handy. Not sure why you'd think it's so terrible - how else would you capture a request in a variable to play with it in the REPL?
I think a lot of the constraints can be relaxed during the development phase.
I think a lot of the constraints can be relaxed during the development phase.
For example a dynamic variable could be accessible in the debug repl:
CL-USER 56 > (defvar *bar*)
*BAR*
CL-USER 57 > (defun foo (baz)
(let ((*bar* (* 1000 baz)))
(break)
*bar*))
FOO
CL-USER 58 > (foo 5)
Break.
1 (continue) Return from break.
2 (abort) Return to level 0.
3 Return to top loop level 0.
Type :b for backtrace or :c <option number> to proceed.
Type :bug-form "<subject>" for a bug report template or :? for other options.
CL-USER 59 : 1 > *bar*
5000
CL-USER 60 : 1 > :l baz
Value of BAZ is:
5
CL-USER 61 : 1 > *
5
In some other Lisp I would call (inspect foo) instead of (print foo) and the inspected values would be available in a stack of inspectors. Alternatively I would trace the functions, and the tracer would record the passed and returned objects.