Re: Re: Making ASDF-Install ASDF-Installable

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 12:21:47 +0100, "Tim Daly Jr." <[email protected]> wrote:

> FWIW, I'm reasonably familiar with Lisp, yet I use ASDF-INSTALL all
> the time.  It's the quickest way to grab the latest version of a
> package and its dependencies.

Does it grab the latest versions of dependencies as well?  IIRC it
only checks whether a library is installed or not.

> I also think that it makes people more likely to release multiple
> small libraries, as well as to depend on libraries without
> incorporating them.

That's true but I think tools like ASDF and MK:DEFSYSTEM already
encourage this approach.  (And nevertheless there are still enough
projects like CL-PDF or Portable AllegroServe which distribute their
own, possibly outdated versions of other libs.)

> TBNL, for example, depended on 6 other packages last time I checked.

Hey, I have plans to make that seven in the near future... :)

> Who wants to manually download, unpack, symlink, and gpg-key-check 7
> packages every time he sets up a webserver?

True, but there were several longer periods where you had to do that
at least semi-manually anyway because, e.g., the newest TBNL only
worked with patched or CVS versions of other libs.  In an ideal world
this wouldn't happen, of course.

But I think TBNL is a rather extreme example.  Most libraries depend
on one or two other libs at most.

> Making ASDF-INSTALL ASDF-INSTALL-able is a neat idea, but a better
> goal, IMHO, is to get one right version of it that never changes.
> It's infrastructure.  I don't upgrade ls, cp, mv, etc., and I don't
> want to have to upgrade ASDF-INSTALL.

Good point but we're at the mercy of the implementors here.

Cheers,
Edi.


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