Re: Naive DEFSYSTEM replacement

Shameless plug.

https://gitlab.common-lisp.net/mantoniotti/mk-defsystem

Try it.

MA


On Fri, Jul 25, 2025 at 10:18 AM Adam Weaver (as adam at cleversure dot com
dot au) <[email protected]> wrote:

> I've been fighting with LW:DEFSYSTEM and ASDF:DEFSYSTEM again.
>
> No doubt the problem is with me, but I just can't figure out
> LW:DEFSYSTEM. What I *want* is to declare a "system" of files and their
> dependencies, and have LW:COMPILE-SYSTEM heapsort the dependencies into
> an appropriate order and compile them one-by-one.
>
> But LW:DEFSYSTEM instead seems to want *me* to do so - and declare the
> order of dependencies for it. Since I want the files to be in
> alphabetical order for OCD reasons, LW:DEFSYSTEM and I aren't friends.
>
> Plus the whole ...
>
> (:in-order-to :compile ("foo")
>   (:caused-by (:compile "other file why do I have to tell you this"))
>   (:requires (:load "other thing you should be able to work out")))
>
> ... just strikes me as nutty. Makefiles might be weird, but they work!
> Why don't we have an easy Make replacement?
>
>
> And ASDF vomited some bollocks about "UIOP" or something.
>
> So.
>
> ====================================================================
> What am I missing? Why is ASDF and LW:DEFSYSTEM just so complicated?
> ====================================================================
>
> I hacked this up in 10 minutes (formatting is weird due to 78 cols) ...
>
> (defmacro defsystem* (system &rest components)
>   (declare (ignore (system)))
>   (labels ((reorder (list)
>              "Turn our dependency list inside out"
>              (loop for (file . reqs) in list
>                    nconc (nconc (loop for sub in reqs
>                                       nconc (checkout sub list))
>                          (list file))))
>
>            (checkout (file list)
>              "Recursively replace FILE with the items in LIST"
>              (nconc (loop for req in
>                               (cdr (find file list
>                                         :test #'string= :key #'car))
>                           nconc (checkout req list))
>                     (list file)))
>
>            (inflate (c)
>              "Turn each string into a sort of pathname"
>              (if (keywordp (car c))
>                  (let ((subdir (string-downcase
>                                  (symbol-name (car c)))))
>                    (mapcar (lambda (s) (mapcar (lambda (c)
>                                          (concatenate 'string
>                                               subdir "/" c)) s))
>                            (cdr c)))
>                  (copy-list c)))
>
>            (make-compile-file (file)
>              `(compile-file-if-needed ,file :load t)))
>
>     `(let ((hcl:*compiler-break-on-error* t))
>        ,@(mapcar #'make-compile-file
>                  (delete-duplicates (mapcan (lambda (c)
>                    (reorder (inflate c))) components)
>                    :test #'equal :from-end t)))))
>
> to turn ...
>
> (defsystem* :riskmate
>     (:cl-ppcre
>      ("packages")
>      ("specials" "packages"))
>
>   (:chipz
>    ("package")
>    ("constants" "package"))
>
>   (:gray-streams
>    ("package")
>    ("streams" "package"))
>
>   (:salza2
>    ("package")
>    ("reset" "package"))
>
>   (("package")
>    ("anzsic" "package" "init")
>    ("asset" "package" "init")
>    ("chrome" "package")
>    ("claim" "package" "init" "document")
>    ("client" "package" "init")
>    ("contact" "package" "init")
>    ("crypto" "package" "utils" "mime")
>    ("fcgi" "package")
>    ("document" "package" "init" "client")))
>
>
> ... into ...
>
> (let ((*compiler-break-on-error* t))
>   (compile-file-if-needed "cl-ppcre/packages" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "cl-ppcre/specials" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "chipz/package" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "chipz/constants" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "gray-streams/package" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "gray-streams/streams" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "salza2/package" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "salza2/reset" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "package" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "init" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "anzsic" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "asset" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "chrome" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "client" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "document" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "claim" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "contact" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "utils" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "mime" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "crypto" :load t)
>   (compile-file-if-needed "fcgi" :load t))
>
>
> The real files are a lot more complicated of course :)
>
>
> So what's the downside?
>
> Adam
>
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