Question from the old school: source config DSL

[Robert Goldman]

On 8/24/15 Aug 24 -2:14 PM, Faré wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 2:48 PM, Robert Goldman <rpgoldman at sift.net> wrote:
>> I have always used ASDF:*CENTRAL-REGISTRY*, with some local code that
>> grovels over source trees.
>>
>> I'd love to stop maintaining the tree groveler, and move to the DSL, but
>> I have never understood how you debug the DSL when ASDF fails to find
>> your system.
>>
>> With *CENTRAL-REGISTRY* you pretty much pprint the variable, eyeball it,
>> and it's usually pretty easy to see whether a directory is missing.
>>
>> But what do you do if you use the DSL?  The last time I tried to use the
>> DSL, I found myself using the inspector to grovel over internal-to-ASDF
>> hash tables, which wasn't very pleasant.
>>
>> Is there a "debugger API" to the new source configuration search?  E.g.,
>> can we dump the hash-table in a human readable (sorted, formatted way?)?
>> can we trace something to see how ASDF is populating the hash table?
>> *)
> You can
> (alexandria:hash-table-alist asdf/source-registry::*source-registry*)
> 
> or for a higher-level view, you can
> (asdf/source-registry:flatten-source-registry)

Exactly the answer I was looking for!

I will add this to the function index in the ASDF manual.

Maybe add a FAQ that's something like "what do I do if ASDF cannot find
a system I think it should?"

cheers,
r