Re: wither ASDF

Gary King writes:

"wither ASDF" <--- yes, more of this, please.

> The recent traffic regarding ASDF features, missing features, lost  
> patches, and a possible move leaves me wondering (again) about the  
> more basic question of where ASDF and ASDF-Install should head. These  
> are very different pieces of software so I'm going to focus on just  
> ASDF for now.
> 
> Questions (or perhaps vague musings) that I have from time to time are:
> 
> * What is ASDF?

Good question.  I think it's several things:

1. a "system construction" facility in a tradition of such facilities,

2. a sort of runtime loader for "constructed" systems,

3. a protocol that's supposed to facilitate system maintenance tasks,

4. an ostensibly extensible-by-subclassing implementation of 1 and 2
   using 3,

5. by dint of widespread use, a software layer in a few code sharing
   practices in the Lisp commuity.

> * how does ASDF related to SBCL? Is there a special relationship? Is  
> it more special than it needs to be?

Not at all, no and no.

> * who pushes ASDF forward and in what direction?
>
> * how do we get ASDF to be included in all Lisp distributions?
>
> * how do we make ASDF better?

I don't subscribe to the suppositions behind these questions, so I
cannot answer them.

> * how does ASDF relate to ASDF-Install and what about these new- 
> fangled kids like mudballs, cl-build, and so on.

AFAICT, ASDF-Install, mudballs, and cl-build deal with acquiring and
managing systems in an implementation-independent manner, which is a
different tangle of problems than those ASDF addresses.  (mudballs seems
also to include a distinct system construction facility, too.)

> * Who wants to lead ASDF development (and who has the time!)
> 
> * Is ASDF maintenance a democracy, an oligarchy or a monarchy (and, in  
> every case, who is doing the directing?)

I have no answers to these questions.

> For the last few years, ASDF has been stable (but perhaps too stable).  
> There are a lot of directions it could go.

As I've opined before, because ASDF is an important piece of
infrastructure in the community, my most important requirement is that
it remain compatible with itself.

--
Richard

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by:
SourcForge Community
SourceForge wants to tell your story.
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword