[asdf-devel] ASDF manual lisp installation directions

[Pascal J. Bourguignon]

On 2010/03/12, at 00:53 , Robert Goldman wrote:

> Going over the manual to tidy it up, I was quite surprised to read  
> this:
>
>   The default location for a user to install Common Lisp software is
> under `~/.local/share/common-lisp/source/'.
>
> This seems /very/ odd.  Why would I want to install software in a
> location 'ls' is going to hide from me?
>
> For conventional programs, I stick the source in ~/src and I put my
> executables in ~/bin.  It wouldn't even occur to me to stick them
> somewhere where I couldn't find them without something like 'ls -a'.
>
> Furthermore, since I work on my lisp code most of the day, it wouldn't
> occur to me to hide them four levels deep behind a hidden directory.
>
> Do most lisp users stick things in ~/.local ?  And if so, why????

You're right, it's totally silly.

Moreover, file names starting with dots are not even "right" for lisp,  
given the syntax for logical pathnames.  They can only be explicited  
as physical pathnames...

Actually, I have ls as an alias which includes the -a option in my  
~/.bashrc, so it would make no difference to name an entry with a  
dot.  Therefore I tend to not (anymore) use dotfiles (I rename my  
~/.common.lisp file to ~/common.lisp now).

On my systems, Lisp software is installed either in distribution  
specified directories, such as /usr/share/common-lisp (gentoo), or in / 
data/share/lisp/ or in ~/src/lisp/ etc.

-- 
__Pascal Bourguignon__
http://www.informatimago.com