[asdf-devel] Pre ML post review

[Robert Goldman]

I would like to suggest an addition from my experience of working with
colleagues at other companies.  I'd suggest that we have a way to
specify files relative to something akin to *load-truename*.

Here's the use case:  you work on a large project with an enormous
source code repository, cluttered with binaries and many files in a
programming language that begins with "j".  You want people to be able
to check out the repository and point to an asdf configuration file that
is contained in that repository.

Now, the (:add-directory ...) command seems like it might do the job,
but it doesn't quite, because it will recurse /everywhere/.

In my not-quite-hypothetical example, the directory tree is way too
large for you to blindly recurse looking for .asd files --- it's full of
those files in the j-language which, coincidentally, has a compilation
and namespacing protocol which causes it to spawn simply /enormous/
directory trees, most of which you will never want to search for a .asd
file.

So we'd like to put in this repository a single asdf configuration file
that will specify /relative/ paths to search.

I think this would be compatible with the broad outlines of your idea.
Indeed, it's possible that this is actually covered by your design,
assuming that "." can be used as a DIRECTORY-PATHNAME-DESIGNATOR.
Perhaps you could spell out what goes in there?

I'd also like to suggest that we expand the API to

(process-source-registry-configuration-file X)

which seems like a useful convenience.

Best,
robert



[a subversive alternative:  why don't we provide an alternative to
logical pathnames that actually *works*?]