[armedbear-devel] Folding Lisp application code into a JAR file in the Java CLASSPATH

[Alessio Stalla]

On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 5:07 AM, Olsen, Peter C. <Peter.Olsen at jhuapl.edu> wrote:
> Ladies and Gentlemen,
>
> Is there an elegant way to have ABCL load Lisp code from a JAR file in the
> Java CLASSPATH?

I believe these are two different issues coalesced into one:

1. load code from the classpath
2. load code from a Jar

At runtime, the classpath is a logical entity, and it is the
combination of several resources, such as local and remote jars, local
.class files, etc.

A jar is just a zip file with some extra metadata, and its contents
may or may not be part of the classpath.

Also, you refer generically to Lisp code, but it may be Lisp source or
a FASL (which in ABCL might be a compressed file itself).

So, it's not as simple as it seems. I believe that, internally, ABCL
can load code from any stream, be it source code or compiled code.
What it lacks, and there are ongoing efforts to address that (see
Mark's mail), is a well-thought integration with CL:LOAD semantics,
such as addressing resources inside the classpath and jars with Lisp
pathnames, proper setting of *LOAD-TRUENAME*, etc.

hth,
Alessio