[asdf-devel] Make the CL syntax predictable

[Robert Goldman]

Quick follow-up: what about blowing this discussion into launchpad under
the rubric of "Manage CL syntax" or something like that.

I would prefer not to lose the discussion.

I believe this is a place where a tool like POIU or XCVB really veers
away from vanilla CL usage.

Vanilla CL usage encourages* actions during building that side-effect
the global state of the image.  These actions may be bad if one wishes
to build individual components in multiple different CL images.  But
they are natural to people developing code incrementally and
interactively using a REPL.

I don't want ASDF to drift into being a tool that prescriptively moves
people away from that practice.  I think that's too presumptive for a
piece of infrastructure.  I don't think it's my job to wreck code, just
because it's bad style.  And I don't think proper use of the readtable
or of pretty-print dispatch is obvious enough that people will recover
well if we mess with it.

As you have said, I am inclined to be much more conservative about
changes like this.

Best,
r



* I am not endorsing or deprecating this encouragement.