[asdf-devel] I think new ASDF has busted asdf-binary-locations

[james anderson]

On 2009-09-09, at 17:54 , Robert Goldman wrote:

> james anderson wrote:
>> [...]
>>> 2.  Logical pathnames are defined in ANSI CL to use case-flattened
>>> pathnames.  That means they are an extremely poor fit for modern
>>> case-sensitive file systems.  Some number of existing ASDF systems
>>> would
>>> break because their directory structures contain case-sensitive
>>> pathnames.  From the Hyperspec grammar for logical pathname
>>> namestrings
>>> (section 19.3.1):
>>>
>>> "word---one or more uppercase letters, digits, and hyphens."
>>>
>>> As long as SBCL hews to the letter of the ANSI spec for logical
>>> pathnames, I regard logical pathnames as useless in portable  
>>> code.  I
>>> now use them only in code that, for one reason or another, will
>>> only run
>>> in ACL.  [Note that this is /not/ meant as a criticism of the SBCL
>>> policy.]
>>
>> is it perhaps time to deal with this as a community, rather that each
>> asserting that they know better?
>
> Probably, but I don't think we should wait to get the function that
> A-B-L provides until we have fixed logical pathnames.  At the  
> expense of
> being flip, that's like saying "we'll wait until the Messiah comes."
> Especially given how many years the community has been saying "what
> comes after the ANSI standard?"

there are now at least two re-implementations of (at least some  
aspects of) logical pathnames: a-b-l and fare's. in each case,  
because of the belief, that the language offered no alternative. i  
suggest that it is not only flip, but short-sighted, to exaggerate  
any impediments so as to render the problem unassailable.

has anyone ever tried to specify a form of logical pathname which  
would suffice for their use cases. are the only real issues the case- 
folding and the word constituents? i ask, as i've found that, exactly  
by observing those limitations, recent runtime implementations are  
sufficiently consistent to portably define logical hosts for use with  
asdf.