[asdf-devel] ASDF manual lisp installation directions

[Faré]

>>: rpg
>> 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????
>>
Well, apart from ~/.local/share/ being a "standard" XDG-recommended
place to store such things, consider that

1- *If* we are any successful, most users would probably not read,
  much less edit, any of the stuff they download (or rather,
  that gets downloaded for them). It is proper that that stuff
  should be stashed away in a hidden directory.

2- Sure, developers like you and I want to see our source in
  an easily accessed directory, but

  a- there is no standard for such directory (I use ~/cl/)

  b- we developers can easily add stuff to our source-registry
    configuration.

3- you didn't complain when I put the configuration in
  ~/.config/common-lisp/ which is also the XDG-recommended place.

>: pjb
> 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...
>
Uh? You can easily configure a logical host that will map
some logical pathname of your choice to the suitable physical pathname.
No problem here.

> 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).
>
To each his own, but

> 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.
>
Everyone has a different setup. Hence this configuration facility.

[ François-René ÐVB Rideau | Reflection&Cybernethics | http://fare.tunes.org ]
You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers.
You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. — Naguib Mahfouz