On Thu, 1 Oct 2009, Gary King wrote:
This file will be used to configure stuff like asdf-binary-locations, correct? IMO, the config file should be loaded before the CL_SYSTEM_PATH variable is used. They could usefully modify DEFAULT_CL_SYSTEM_PATH; but they should never modify the actual CL_SYSTEM_PATH (e.g. a shell script may need custom settings).
Can you provide some examples of what you see folks doing with this?
This would be a central spot to customize ASDF for all lisp implementations on a system. It would have stuff like.
(setf asdf:*centralize-lisp-binaries* t asdf:*default-toplevel-directory* #P"/fasls" asdf:*compile-file-failure-behaviour* :warn asdf:*default-central-registry* (list p1 p2 p3) ...)
Again, it should be searched in the usual configuration paths (e.g. ~/.asdf-config.lisp, /etc/asdf-config.lisp), not in CL_SYSTEM_PATH. A CL_SYSTEM_ENV variable could replace CL_SYSTEM_PATH by pointing directly to this configuration file...
Later, Daniel
P.S. If these are to be used by non-asdf systems, then it may be appropriate to move such symbols outside the asdf package. Similarly, there would be a need to specify initialization semantics so the different systems set them cooperatively. Fortunately, these issues can be addressed at a later date when such systems exist.