newbie setup question

[Robert Goldman]

On 1/18/16 Jan 18 -9:28 AM, Attila Lendvai wrote:
>> *  asdf:*central-registry*
>>
>> (#P"/home/LE/sbcl/" #P"/home/mordecai/quicklisp/quicklisp/")
> 
> i'd just put my code under ~/quicklisp/local-projects/ and forget
> about ASDF configuration until it's again needed for something. you
> can also use symlinks.
> 
> also, IIRC asdf:*central-registry* is obsoleted.
> 

I'm even the maintainer and I still use ASDF:*CENTRAL-REGISTRY*.

The new DSL and Faré's very efficient search methods provide great value
if you are searching a large tree of files.

They are also opaque and difficult to debug.

If you have only a few directories in your search tree, IMO, you are
better off just sticking to ASDF:*CENTRAL-REGISTRY*

If you want to understand why ASDF can't find your system, the answer is
usually just a (PPRINT ASDF:*CENTRAL-REGISTRY*) away.  And the
inefficiency won't kill you.

I just wrote a trivial tree searcher I could make publicly available.
Key advantage: it's dead simple, and you can use TRACE to see if it's
doing what you want.

Also, it's easy to write code to manipulate your central registry in
lisp, on the fly.  Typing the DSL into the REPL isn't my cup of tea.

YMMV -- in particular if you have a very large set of libraries, as I
have said above -- the DSL and caching can be a huge win.  But for many
of us, it will be overkill, and come with a high cost in lost ability to
debug.  Stumbling through the many function pointers, hash tables, etc.,
is hard work!

As long as I am maintainer, *CENTRAL-REGISTRY* will stay.

Cheers,
r