A [third version of patches][1] are now available to load from JARs in ABCL.
This version can load FASLs from JARs with a asdf:load-just-fasls-op (thanks Alan!) implementation (see web page for instructions).
In general this work seems to be approaching something I would merge to trunk with the following outstanding issues to consider:
1) There is a regression in failing logical pathname translation tests in ABCL.TEST.LISP having to do with improper case conversion. Probably introduced with the Pathname copy constructor I introduced to get around the MERGE-PATHNAME implementation not treating its arguments in final (which is currently a bug on trunk in certain conditions as well).
2) Dangling open InputStreams need to be closed
3) Possibly reestablish the use ZipCache, although I don't think its a win in its previous form. Maybe something using a timer thread to invalidate? Seems wrong.
4) Test the use of URLs in JAR pathnames
5) Wider testing with the ANSI test suite to make sure the Pathname behavior is at least as correct as the previous version.
[1]: http://slack.net/~evenson/abcl/jar-file/