Marco Antoniotti <marcoxa@cs.nyu.edu> writes:

> On Mar 12, 2014, at 15:32 , Zach Beane <xach@xach.com> wrote:
>
>> Robert Goldman <rpgoldman@sift.net> writes:
>>
>>> Zach Beane wrote:
>>>> The complexity of the registry configuration is one reason why I added
>>>> the ~/quicklisp/local-projects/ mechanism.
>>>
>>> Right, so I don't see why there's such a huge objection to having a
>>> similar mechanism for ASDF.  Stellian suggests using
>>> ~/quicklisp/local-projects/.  So why is it wrong for ASDF to have a
>>> local-projects directory?
>>>
>>> All I am suggesting is to have the local projects directory for ASDF be
>>> visible, instead of invisible.
>>>
>>> I stand corrected about using a name that the user might have already
>>> had (thanks, Pascal!) but I don't yet see a solution that's as easy as a
>>> default directory location.
>>
>> I think having a similar mechanism would be good. (And the
>> loading-from-a-file thing could be nice too.)
>>
>> I think the main problem is that giving it a nice name means that the
>> chance is high of it clashing with a nice name one or more users is
>> already using.
>>
>> A while ago I was thinking it would be nice to have an API like this:
>>
>>  register-system-directory directory &key permanently
>>
>>    Registers DIRECTORY as a directory to search for system files. If
>>    PERMANENTLY is true, make the registration persist across sessions.
>
>> But then I got hung up about how to make PERMANENTLY work -- I don't
>> think there's any way to ask ASDF what directory is suitable for saving
>> a config file.
>>
>> And I am 100% in favor of a nice solution that does not involve
>> Quicklisp. The simpler, the better.
>
> That is what MK:DEFSYSTEM used to (actually still does) have.
>
> mk:add-registry-location <pathname>
>
> I don’t think you want the ‘permanently’.  Your init file should be able to deal with that.

I'd like to use this interface *instead* of thinking about which config
file to extend, and extend a cross-platform data file instead.

But I can't figure out how to do it, so it's a bit moot right now.

Zach