[asdf-devel] [cclan-list] How to depend on a system optionally?

[Gary King]

> Gary King wrote:
>> I share Robert's queasiness and also think that we want ASDF to  
>> support
>> these sorts of dependencies (simple, weak, contingent, etc... (?)).

I will do this.

>>
>> I'm going to update the manual with James's table (thanks James!)  
>> in the
>> hopes of giving us a place to hang our collective hats.

This is done.

>>
>>
>
> That sounds like a good idea, modulo it would be great to put it in  
> some
> new section like "TODO list" or "Missing bits in implementation."
>
> How about pushing my documentation of weakly-depends-on at the same
> time?  Possibly with some warning that the implementation of this may
> change.
>
> Suggestion:  instead of using a trick to get the square peg
> :weakly-depends on logic to sorta fit in the round-hole :depends-on
> slot, which forces us to (inappropriately, IMO) evaluate this stuff at
> macroexpansion time, I think we should suck it up and add extra slots
> for weak dependencies and contingent dependencies.
>
> Follow-on suggestion:  we need to think about what happens when a
> component has all possible combinations of :depends-on,
> :weakly-depends-on, and :contingent-on.  Does something that would not
> be loaded because of :contingent-on avoid a crash that would come  
> from a
> violated :depends-on?
>
> Extra bonus follow-on:  are these expected to be meaningful when the
> depended-on item is a system (clearly yes), a feature (seems handy),  
> an
> arbitrary component (what would this mean?)?
>
> Best,
> r
>

--
Gary Warren King, metabang.com
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