[asdf-devel] Alternate default lisp system location

[Pascal Costanza]

asdf is not a tool for beginners. Beginners will either deal with a bare Common Lisp implementation, or they want to experiment with third-party libraries, in which case they want to use quicklisp these days. Once you need to define your own systems, you're not a beginner anymore, and a good tutorial helps a lot more than any supporting wheels can. It's already hard enough to ensure that asdf doesn't accidentally find systems you don't want it to find, you shouldn't make it even harder.

On top of that, with the proposed scheme, you will create a situation where there are not only two "default" locations for user-defined systems, but three when quicklisp is active. I find it hard to imagine that beginners will find this easy to grasp.

Just my 0.02€...

Pascal

Sent from my iPad

> On 12 Mar 2014, at 16:04, "Robert P. Goldman" <rpgoldman at sift.info> wrote:
> 
> Stelian Ionescu wrote:
>> It's very easy not to have a default directory at all.
> 
> I'm sorry, I don't agree that this claim is correct.  I have just pushed
> my current draft of the ASDF manual, and I urge you to read it.
> 
> I think you will find that the configuration of the source search path
> is *very* complex, indeed too complex for a beginner.  It's great for
> hackers with complex requirements, but there's too much to be read if
> you just want to make one or two simple systems.
> 
> Please do skim at least the first few pages, and I think you will see
> what I mean.
> 
> Best,
> r
>