[asdf-devel] Make the CL syntax predictable

Attila Lendvai attila.lendvai at gmail.com
Fri Mar 28 17:00:38 UTC 2014


> I do have control: If femlisp or any other library makes a boneheaded
> decision that breaks my software, I can stop using it.


yes, resolving that is trivial -- once you have identified the
problem.

regarding the recent discussions i'm generally baffled why it is at
all a question whether to make a build software deterministic or
not. in my view if there's anything in the global state that has an
effect on the building of a software, anything, then it's a bug.

and if this state can be set in a way that it leaks out and influences
builds later in time, then it's an ugly bug feasting on programmer
nerves and time.

the only question to me is what should be the defaults, and how can
the transition be made smoother with deprecation warnings and whatnot.

and if there are some unmaintained, bitrotten libraries and some
software depending on them, then they have all the freedom in the
world not to upgrade ASDF, or to put on the maintainer hat and patch
the bitrotten libs.

by now the time on spent discussing this would have easily been enough
to fix all of them twice over, and to add a section to the top of the
manual, with bold, that lists the global state that ASDF guarantees
and isolates.

-- 
• attila lendvai
• PGP: 963F 5D5F 45C7 DFCD 0A39
--
“Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those
who love war.”
	― Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968, assassinated)



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