On Wed, 2014-03-12 at 09:20 -0500, Robert P. Goldman wrote:
Stelian Ionescu wrote:
- install Quicklisp, it's easy and painless
- put your projects in $QUICKLISPDIR/local-projects/
done.
I get you, but I don't like it.
That's like saying "I want to make my first C program." "OK, let me teach you how to use apt-get."
Yes, and it's a very good idea to do just that because either you want to use ASDF to load other libraries in which case you need QL, or a simple file will suffice.
Maybe this is the right answer, but it's not a path to getting a minimal understandable config for ASDF. All that's happening here is that Quicklisp is hiding the complexity.
Which is very good. People that write .asd files aren't beginners.
I am reminded of Clojure: "I want to write my first Clojure program, what do I do?" "First learn how Leiningen works."
Yes. Want to learn node.js ? Use npm. Want to learn ruby ? Use gems. Want to learn python ? Use pip. etc...
I am happy for people to tell novices to start with Quicklisp, don't get me wrong. And if that's their path into programming, instead of starting through ASDF, I'm fine with that, too. But it doesn't remove the need for a trivial path into ASDF.
Your email does suggest that ~/asdf-local-projects/ might be a suitable location...
Similarly, it's unacceptable to have as the first instruction in our manual "go off, find and install a script that configures our tool." That means that we have failed to provide an easily configurable tool.
What you want to provide is not an easily configurable tool, but an already-configured tool.