[asdf-devel] distributing asdf

[Faré]

[Edited subject]
>> That begs the question: how should asdf be distributed?
>
> Does it? I thought we were talking about asdf-driver.
>
Well, asdf-driver is currently developed together with asdf,
which crucially depends on it.
So how to distribute one with or without the other is a question;
hopefully made less important by quicklisp.

Also, distributing asdf-driver separately from asdf makes for
quadratic growth of potential upgrade issues to be wary of.

>> As asdf.lisp only?
>
> Yes. As it always has been.
>
That is not the whole truth.

ASDF has been distributed in many ways;
in order of chronology and progress, I can cite:
* as a source file that you may load manually.
* as code builtin to the image on Debian with C-L-C.
* as part of some batteries-included Lisp distribution.
* as a REQUIRE module provided by the Lisp implementation.
* as a system and source file ready to upgrade any of the previous
  with a more advanced version on which you depend.

The latter solution has only worked since ASDF 2
(indeed, was the whole point of ASDF 2), and has allowed for some
decoupling between what providers offer and was users may require,
thus fostering nicer development.

These days, all actively-maintained implementations (except maybe SCL?)
provide ASDF 2 as a REQUIRE module. Some of them are quite old
(CLISP still provides 2.011), but all of them are able to locate
a new ASDF in the source registry and upgrade themselves.

—♯ƒ • François-René ÐVB Rideau •Reflection&Cybernethics• http://fare.tunes.org
Economic illiteracy often leads one to take for wealth creation or cost
reduction what is only a forced displacement of activity, with no primary
gain, and a lot of secondary costs and negative side-effects. — Faré