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

[Faheem Mitha]

On Thu, 9 Jan 2014, Sian Mountbatten wrote:

> Je Wed, 8 Jan 2014 22:58:06 -0500 (EST)
> Daniel Herring <dherring at tentpost.com> skribis:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> For what little they're worth, here are my votes on the topic.
>>
>> Q: Have Quicklisp distribute Slime?
>> A: Sure!  (Doesn't it already?)
>>
>> Q: Have Slime rely on ASDF?
>> A: Sure.  The current Slime loader is generally reliable, but there
>> is something to be said for pooling effort in a common solution, and
>> ASDF has really improved in recent years.
>>
>> Q: Have Slime rely on Quicklisp?
>> A: No way!  You've got this all backwards.  Quicklisp adds
>> downloading, dependency management, and such to ASDF.  It also
>> assumes a network connection and a certain level of trust in the
>> repository.
>>
>> Q: Have Slime rely on make?
>> A: ?!??  GNU Make maybe, but it is essentially a non-starter on
>> MSWin, Android, iOS, ....
>>
>>
>> Thinking about an ideal, non-Quicklisp-assisted install, could
>> something like the following work?
>>
>> - download and extract Slime (zip, tar.gz, or txz)
>> - open slime-install.lisp in Emacs
>> - follow some instructions that start an interactive session that
>> configures and installs (or upgrades) Slime
>
> Dear List
>
> I'd like to put in my two pennorth.
>
> I am currently using the wheezy flavour of the Debian Linux distro and
> I should like to point out that slime is a standard Debian package.
> Both ASDF and Quicklisp are available as the Debian packages cl-asdf
> and cl-quicklisp respectively.
>
> I also use sbcl and I notice that the ASDF bundled with sbcl is not as
> recent as that supplied by the Debian package cl-asdf. So, maybe some
> time should be given as to why that is so.

Hi Sian,

It is inevitable in general that there be this disparity, and I think that 
ASDF has allowed for that. From my limited understanding, ASDF does some 
magic to upgrade itself on the fly.

The only other option is that the Common Lisp implementions do not use the 
internal copy and point to the external copy, and the ASDF maintainer has 
ruled that a Bad Idea.

                                                            Regards, Faheem