[asdf-devel] RMCL vs. ASDF

[Pascal Costanza]

Hi,

Here is what happens in RMCL when the configuration says :inherit-configuration. At startup, I get an error message that says this:

;  NOTE: *TERMINAL-IO* was #<CCL::INITIALIZATION-OUTPUT-STREAM #x4453B26>, was reset to #<CCL::TERMINAL-IO #x4A0FE26> .
> Error in process Startup: File #4P"home:" does not exist.
> While executing: TRUENAME

This is triggered by the function user-homedir. While RMCL is still in debug mode for this error, (truename (user-homedir-pathname)) fails. However, afterwards, it returns correctly (for some value of "correct"):

? (truename (user-homedir-pathname))
#P"Macintosh HD:Users:costanza:lisp:RMCL 5.2.1:"

My guess is that user-homedir-pathname returns #4P"home:" as a constant value, even before the logical pathname translation for it is defined during startup.

The deeper problem is, again, that the notion of a home directory doesn't make sense in RMCL (at least not by default). If ASDF wants to have a notion of a home directory, it should be a configurable parameter of ASDF that in most systems can indeed default to the result of (user-homedir-pathname). But it should be possible to explicitly set it in some way before ASDF decides to go looking for it. (This would make ASDF more robust for potential future CL systems that may not have a notion of a home directory either, however unlikely this may be.)


Pascal

--
Pascal Costanza
The views expressed in this email are my own, and not those of my employer.