[slime] swank-loader could use ASDF (#65)

[Faré]

>>: Helmut
>> The problem "How do we get from a vanilla Lisp to one where we can do
>> (require :asdf)" was solved by forcing every implementation to bundle
>> ASDF.  IMO, quicklisp is facing a similar problem.  Should quicklisp use
>> a similar "bundle it with the implementation" strategy?  I think not,
>> because a) it needs a lot of communication b) the bundled version gets
>> outdated quickly.
>
I promise I never forced or threatened any Lisp vendor —
though I nagged and probably annoyed many of them.
It's just every Lisp vendor's interest to boast out of the box support
for hundreds of free software libraries.

One big different between ASDF and Quicklisp, though,
is that ASDF is relatively small, self-contained, and,
if not forward-compatible, at least self-upgradable since ASDF2.
That means that a vendor can update whenever he likes,
and be confident that if ASDF gets obsolete, that's no big deal,
because it can be used to bootstrap the loading of the new version
in a portable way, automated way (assuming that new version
was properly installed by whoever or whatever software needs it)
On why upgradability matters in such cases:
http://fare.livejournal.com/149264.html

Quicklisp is more open-ended (unless you always distribute all the
libraries together with it, in which case that's BIG and gets obsolete fast),
and so far as I know solves the hard upgrade issues by assuming
standardized per-user location, some (minimal) level of user interaction
and possible Lisp process restart if any major incompatibility occurs.
That makes it a harder proposition to bundle Quicklisp
with either an implementation, or, in that case, SLIME;
but also less necessary.

I still think integration of SLIME with Quicklisp is a good idea,
just not co-distribution.

>: Zach
> For what it's worth, I would prefer implementations do not include
> Quicklisp. I don't like the idea of implementations making divergent
> code for Quicklisp, and I don't like the idea of the instructions for
> how to get Quicklisp diverging based on which Lisp you
> use. (asdf-install was bad in this regard.)
>
> The instructions for Quicklisp are kept intentionally simple as a
> result:
>
>   - download http://beta.quicklisp.org/quicklisp.lisp
>
>   - (load "quicklisp.lisp")
>

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