I've seen the pattern of using :long-description #.(uiop:read-file-string (uiop:subpathname *load-pathname* "README.md")) spread among CL libraries.
I see it only as a waste of kilobytes of data (quadrupled on 32-bit unicode lisps such as SBCL).
I'm told it's because Quickdocs likes it this way.
Since there is not (yet?) any type enforcement on the value of that field, can we instead agree for an alternate format, wherein the field would instead contain the pathname of the long-description file, relative to the (asdf:system-source-directory) ? Thus you'd use: :long-description #p"README.md" And Quickdocs and other documentation tools would do the right thing from there.
Maybe I'm just an old-school code bummer but I'm always saddened by a waste of bytes.
—♯ƒ • François-René ÐVB Rideau •Reflection&Cybernethics• http://fare.tunes.org I have never killed any one, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction. — Clarence Darrow