[asdf-devel] ASDF features under discussion

[Juan Jose Garcia-Ripoll]

Now that this discussion is opened, I would like to add a small
question and a petition.

First the question. What is the level of integration of ASDF with
different implementations? Does ASDF support all lisp implementations
equally? Does SBCL (and perhaps other) ship the latest versions of
ASDF?

I am asking this because ECL has some pretty special needs. Namely,
ASDF currently relies on compile-file / load for everything and for us
it is more efficient to compile many files into a single binary that
is loaded at a later point.

Currently ECL solves this using a slightly outdated version of ASDF,
providing its own operations and imposing around methods on different
operations.
http://ecls.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=ecls/ecl;a=blob;f=contrib/asdf/asdf-ecl.lisp;h=73555de893b81615e0fc2a3e8996e26ea95ea7e9;hb=HEAD

For instance, we have a LOAD-FASL-OP that joins three steps: 1) a
LOAD-OP that thanks to the around methods produces both FASLs and
object files, 2) linking the object files into a big FASL, 3) loading
the big FASL. If the big FASL has been produced, then only step 3) is
performed.

But in addition to this ECL provides operations for creating
standalone executable files, shared libraries and statically linked
libraries
http://ecls.sourceforge.net/new-manual/ch16.html

I am aware that ASDF is a rapidly evolving architecture and I am
afraid that things would break. It is for this reason that I would
like to ask for help in one of these ways: 1) providing a stable way
for us to implement these extensions or 2) including those operations
in ASDF.

Juanjo

On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 3:11 PM, Gary King<gwking at metabang.com> wrote:
> For the record, we've had recent (but not definitive) discussions of:
>
> * whether or not optional parts of a system should be `nil` or unbound
>
> * version numbering
>
> * integrating ASDF and testing
>
> * ASDF and the windows symlink patch.
>
> If there are things I missed in the above list, please let me know.

--
Instituto de Física Fundamental, CSIC
c/ Serrano, 113b, Madrid 28006 (Spain)
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