[asdf-devel] ASDF 2.0 and beyond.

[Nicolas Neuss]

Juan Jose Garcia-Ripoll <juanjose.garciaripoll at googlemail.com> writes:

> On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 12:20 AM, Faré <fahree at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>     PS: after 2.0 is out, I'd like to resign from ASDF maintainership, to
>     focus on XCVB (help welcome on that, too). Is anyone volunteering to
>     replace me on ASDF?
>
> After thinking about it, I am willing to step up as a possible
> replacement.

Dear Juanjo,

please do so.  Following this mailing list and c.l.l., I have the
impression that in the recent months you have put a lot of time and
thought into ASDF (probably second to Fare whom I want to thank for his
work).  I could imagine that as the maintainer you might even save some
work.

> The reasons why I would go that far are
> * My own personal interest in ASDF working properly with ECL and other implementation philosophies.
> * My belief that ASDF can and should be improved along the directions I have repeatedly mentioned: declarative system files, simpler
> user interface for common tasks (testing, building, packing, installing...).
> * My will to make it simpler to systematically download, build and test existing software with different implementations [1]

Looks good.

> Reasons why I am still doubting:
> * I have the feeling my points of view do not find a strong resonance
>   here.

My uses of ASDF are simple up to now, i.e. also DEFSYSTEM worked for me
sufficiently well.  For me, the main objective of such a system is that
it is as standard as possible and working with every implementation out
of the box.

> Ingredients needed
> * Help.

Unfortunately, my help would consist solely of trying out also newer
additions to ASDF, e.g. automated testing.

> * Dialogue and feedback here: developers, implementors and users.
> * A short term roadmap and an agreement on long term goals.
> * A test system that works on the asdf-devel branch. I can provide computational power and several operating systems if somebody helps
> me identifying the perfect list of software and setting it up -- http://ecls.sourceforge.net/logs.html
> * Involvement from the community at large, perhaps with periodic calls for evaluation at c.l.l and other forums, setting up a wiki for
> wish lists and collaboration with particular efforts (libcl, clbuild, lisp in a box?)
> * Connecting the test system with an enlarged version of the ASDF analyzer, to monitor evolution of software in real time and how and
> whether ASDF features get widely accepted.
>
> All this can not be done without help. I am willing to learn and to listen to everybody's point of views, but I would expect the same,
> as well as understanding of my verbosity, my lack of communication skills and my occasional emotional outbursts.

Nicolas