[asdf-devel] asdf and quicklisp

[Faré]

Dear Zach,

I'm a bit concerned about quicklisp shipping with a very old version of ASDF.
Quicklisp says it depends on ASDF 2.011 or later in its *required-asdf-version*,
but then you ship with 2.014.6 to load if the implementation's ASDF is too old.
Both 2.011 and 2.014.6 are antique by ASDF standards, and what more, being
older than 2.015, have trouble with self-upgrade as part of loading
other systems
that depend on ASDF. Actually, the good version for self-upgrade is 2.014.8,
but I'm rounding to the next stable release; which brings me to my next point:
2.014.6 is not just old, but it's not a supported release version (not that all
release versions are stable; 2.015 had many issues;
but the supported answer is always to upgrade to the next stable release).

What is the policy for upgrading the ASDF in Quicklisp?
If it's not "never, ever", is it possible to upgrade your ASDF to
something more recent?

For instance, quicklisp contains asdf-encodings and xcvb which depend
on asdf 2.21
for its :encoding feature, and asdf-finalizers which depends on asdf 2.23
for its :compile-check feature. Even without speaking of features,
numerous implementation-specific fixes were committed since 2.014.6,
and new implementations are supported.

Why, of all CL software, is ASDF the only one never to be updated with
Quicklisp?
Is there anything I can do to make things more comfortable for you
with respect to upgrading ASDF?

PS: I otherwise think your work with Quicklisp is wonderful.

—♯ƒ • François-René ÐVB Rideau •Reflection&Cybernethics• http://fare.tunes.org
The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it
were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
                — H. L. Mencken