[alexandria-devel] asdf:load-op failed with LispWorks 4.3.7

[Tobias C. Rittweiler]

"Frank Buss" <fb at frank-buss.de> writes:

> Hi,
>
> on my Windows Vista system, with LispWorks 4.3.7, the ASDF hangs when trying
> to load the Alexandria library. I've debugged it and the reason is this line
> in macros.lisp:
>
> ((cons symbol (cons string-designator null))
>
> I don't understand the details, but I assume something like this was really
> meant:
>
> ((cons symbol (cons string-designator nil))
>
> At least this with this line it loads and compiles without errors. Maybe
> someone can test the function of the macro, if it still works with this
> change and change it in the repository.
>
> Is there any reason why not using simply "list" instead of "cons" twice?

Notice that the relevant line describe a type specifier.  

NIL and NULL are different types: The _type_ NIL is the bottom type in
Common Lisp's type lattice, it's the subtype of every other type. (T is
the top of the lattice, everything is subtype of it.) Whereas NULL is
the type that is a subtype of LIST, and SYMBOL and which contains the
_value_ NIL.

As far as the code is concerned, I think it seems rather like a bug in
Lispworks.

  -T.