[vsync]

This actually isn't true for Common Lisp.

There is a distinction between reader macros and compiler macros, for example, which is relevant for allowing using special syntax be optional for end users.

Certain things also need to be defined if you want them to be available in the compile-time environment. And, sometimes you have to do a bit of extra work if you want to have literal objects in your compilation environment and pass them to runtime.

Check out http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/03_bc.... though it will probably take you a few readings to make sense of it; I know it did for me.

But for the most part things happen automatically.