[armedbear-devel] ASDF-INSTALL committed to trunk

[Mark Evenson]

A port of ASDF-INSTALL has been [committed to trunk][1].

[1]: http://trac.common-lisp.net/armedbear/changeset/12487

I have a lot of issues with the shape of this package.  This is a commit 
to both get feedback and to leave a "stake in the ground" so I can move 
to the more pressing issue of the long form of 
DEFINE-METHOD-COMBINATION.  I really don't expect ASDF-INSTALL to work 
well under Windows, but you at least need [cgywin installed][2] for the 
'tar' and 'gpg' binaries to have a fighting chance.

[2]: http://www.cygwin.com/

To use this package, one must invoke Ant with the target "abcl.contrib" 
whereupon a jar named "dist/abcl-contrib.jar" is created.  Use the 
following in your ~/.abclrc (replacing ${dist.dir} with the absolute 
path of 'abcl-contrib.jar'):

   (require 'asdf)
   (pushnew "jar:file:${dist.dir}/abcl-contrib.jar!/asdf-install/" 
asdf:*central-registry*)

Then issuing

   CL-USER> (require 'asdf-install)

will load ASDF-INSTALL.

After you have loaded ASDF-INSTALL, you use it by issuing commands of 
the form:

   CL-USER> (asdf-install:install :PACKAGE)

where PACKAGE is [an asdf installable system identifier][3].  This  will 
attempt to install that system and all of its dependencies under 
~/.asdf-install-dir.

[3]: http://www.cliki.net/ASDF-Install

To use the system, you need to inform ADSF of the location to load 
systems by having

(pushnew '(merge-pathnames ".asdf-install-dir/systems/"
            (user-homedir-pathname))
          asdf:*central-registry*)

in your '~/.abclrc'.

What are my "issues"?

1.  A large part of the value proposition of ASDF-INSTALL is that it is 
supposed to be help people newish to Lisp manage the installation of a 
lot of libraries to "get something running fast" but we don't have it as 
a standard part of ABCL.  Why?  Because ABCL should simply mean "you 
need Java x.x to run Common Lisp" leaving the platform distinctions 
behind.  But since under Microsoft Windows ASDF-INSTALL relies on a) 
cygwin and b) symbolic links, it requires even *more* steps to get 
working for the hypothetical newcomer (who is likely coming from Windows 
in the first place).  So we currently have no choice (or so I have 
argued myself into the position of) other than making ASDF-INSTALL an 
optional part of ABCL, if we wish to preserve the worthwhile semantics 
of platform independence.

2.  The determination of the location of 'tar' and 'gpg' binaries should 
be better handled.

3.  A lot of ASDF packages don't work well with ABCL, at least without 
patches.  It would be nice to have something sort of like [Lispy][4] 
that could "intervene" for patching and recommendations for versions to 
install.  In fact, a much more distributed manner of naming ADSF 
installable systems would be welcome.

[4]: http://common-lisp.net/project/lispy/

4.  The #+windows conditionals make the asdf-contrib.jar non-platform 
independent.  They should be replaced with (find :windows *features*) 
type forms.

5.  The location of the 'abcl-contrib.jar' should at least be inferred 
from the location of 'abcl.jar' if they are in the same directory, but 
there isn't currently a reasonable proposal for how this would work to 
specify the ASDF location.

6.  SBCL's version of asdf-install, although listed as "0.2" compared to 
the "0.6.10" that I ported seems to have more sophisticated conditionals 
for Microsoft Windows conditionals that should be examined for inclusion.

Patches and comments welcome.



-- 
"A screaming comes across the sky.  It has happened before, but there
is nothing to compare to it now."