[Bese-devel] Re: Getting ucw_box to work

[Lou Vanek]

Pupeno wrote:

 > Hello,
 > I am trying to get ucw to work, so I tried loading lisp.start (from
 > slime) to find this error:
 >
 > The name "IT.BESE.UCW-USER" does not designate any package.
 >    [Condition of type SB-KERNEL:SIMPLE-PACKAGE-ERROR]
 >
 > Restarts:
 >   0: [ABORT] Abort SLIME compilation.
 >   1: [ABORT-REQUEST] Abort handling SLIME request.
 >   2: [TERMINATE-THREAD] Terminate this thread (#<THREAD
 > "worker" {B06D469}>)
 >
 > So, I went form by form in that file until
 >
 > (asdf:oos 'asdf:load-op :ucw)
 >
 > which eventually hungs. I am running it again and let it run for a long
 > time.
 >
 > Any obvious mistake that I am making ?
 >
 > Thank you.
 >

Pupeno,

You don't mention which version of Lisp or OS you are using, but I'm guessing
Clisp on Windows. (Lisp in a box?) If you are on Windows you will have a harder
time getting things to work.

You have an asdf problem. You either don't have links defined that reference the
ucw.asd file or asdf hasn't been set up to look in the right directory for these
links.
Here are a couple of references that may help you trouble-shoot the adsf problem:

   http://www.cliki.net/LispBox
   http://constantly.at/lisp/asdf/

Not only must you tell asdf where your central repository (of .asd links) is, but
there should be links back to all your .asd files located in this central repository.
Asdf was looking for your ucw.asd file when it errored out.

That said, CLisp support in UCW is a bit spotty and you will have problems even
if you get your asdf problem fixed (if using Clisp). There are a number of patches
to UCW so that Clisp can work, however. They were posted (by me) on this ML two
days ago. If you are feeling adventurous you could try patching your version of
UCW (if using CLisp) and look at the sample startup files supplied in the attachments.

Once you call (asdf:oos 'asdf:load-op :ucw) asdf makes a note of the event so that
when you try to call it again asdf (usually) just returns immediately because it
thinks it has already loaded the package. So if asdf is hanging its an indication
that asdf may have to be updated. You can find the latest version (it's only one
file) here:
   http://cclan.cvs.sourceforge.net/cclan/asdf/

There is also a cclan mailing list that answers asdf-related questions:
   http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.lisp.cclan.general

Lou Vanek
-- 
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
Shakespeare